Woman dies after using nasal wash to treat sinusitis

A 69-year-old woman in Seattle, USA, went to see her doctor when her sinus infection became severe. Doctors there prescribed sterile water and a special neti pot to clean her nasal cavity every day. But she missed one important step in the doctor's instructions: using sterile water properly.

Bottled or boiled water is usually considered sterile, but this woman, out of laziness and subjectivity, replaced it with filtered water to clean her nose without knowing that the water filter is not enough to prevent the invasion of harmful bacteria.

Unusual rashes appeared on the bridge of the female patient's nose.

A month after using the neti pot and filtered tap water, a red, scaly rash began to appear on her nose along the bridge. The woman went to a dermatologist and was diagnosed with a complicated infection.

Another time, she went to a hospital in Seattle and suddenly had a seizure, losing consciousness after being fully conscious. Realizing something was wrong, the doctors there conducted a CT scan. The image of her brain seen on the film had become soft and bloody.

A medical consultation followed. She had a history of breast cancer, so the doctors’ first guess was that the tumor had metastasized to the brain. However, this was not the true cause of the brain softening.

The woman was then treated with anti-seizure medication and returned home. However, a week later, she returned to the hospital because the numbness in her hands and feet continued. Eventually, a consultant from Johns Hopkins University suggested that the symptoms were very similar to those of an amoeba infection.

Her brain was gradually eaten away by amoeba bacteria.

The medical team quickly contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and conducted tests and discovered that the woman's brain contained an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba.

Although the patient was immediately treated with medication and antibiotics, it was too late. Within a week, she fell into a deep coma, her brain had almost lost its shape and become soft, the chance of survival was very low. The family decided to let her go not long after.

Brain-eating amoebas are extremely rare, hiding and living in soil and water, and exist in two species called Naegleri and Balamuthia. The amoeba that infected the 69-year-old patient, Balamuthia, was discovered in 1986 and has since infected at least 200 people worldwide and 70 in the United States.

Brain-eating worms are extremely rare.

Balamuthia has a high mortality rate of 89% after infection, despite aggressive treatment. Doctors also warn that if a rash appears after cleaning the nose, go see a doctor and get your condition checked.

How does brain-eating amoeba enter the human body?

The "brain-eating amoeba" often thrives in warm freshwater areas such as ponds, lakes, rivers, streams... in the summer; even unsanitary and unsterilized swimming pools. They enter the body through the nose, move along the olfactory nerve fibers through the base of the skull to the brain, causing meningitis. The danger is that this amoeba can bypass all stages of disinfection and filtration, infecting the domestic water system of families.

However, this amoeba does not cause disease through drinking water, unless rinsing the mouth and the amoeba-infected water goes up the nose. According to experts' recommendations, for those who go swimming, while bathing, swimming in swimming pools, lakes, ponds, streams, limit water into the nose as much as possible by keeping the head high to avoid submerging, using nose clips. Because amoeba enters through the nose, after bathing or swimming, the nose should be cleaned, and an antiseptic solution for the nose and throat should be used to spray and wash the nose.