News: Brain eating Amoeba Infects Fire Captain

A Fire Captain by the name of Matt Moore became seriously ill several months ago and visited four hospitals without receiving any answer from doctors about his strange illness. Mr. Moore was growing sicker each day and was eventually put on life-support in the critical unit in San Diego, California before he started to get some answers.

Mr. Moore is suffering from a very rare and likely case of a brain-eating amoeba which is typically found in the soil but somehow entered his system in the fall of 2007. “This has been a total nightmare,” said Sherry Moore, his wife. “He’s very, very sick, and the prognosis just doesn’t look good.”

Roughly 150 cases of this strange disease have affected people worldwide and only a small number of those diagnosed have survived. Scientists discovered the amoeba in the early 1990s and the technical term for it is Balamuthia mandrillaris. It was previously considered harmless until 1986 when it was first discovered in an animal at the San Diego Wild Animal Park known as a ‘mandrill’. This is an animal which is very similar to a baboon and the animal soon died as a result of the amoeba.

Because of the rarity of this disease, it is estimated that many other people have died of this without even knowing the cause of their illness.
The amoeba is very hard to detect and the infection often goes undiscovered until after the person is already dead. It enters through a wound in the skin or through inhalation after it has been sent into the air. Victims typically make some kind of contact with soil before being infected. Chances of being infected are about the same as being hit by lightning on a sunny day.

Source: Medheadlines