State health regulators confirm brain-eating amoeba has been found in a water system serving about 97,000 people in the Houma area in Terrebonne Parish.
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Guidry says the water is safe to drink but warns residents to avoid getting water up their noses. DHH has been consulting with Australian government officials about how to prevent the brain-eating amoebas from appearing in drinking water after that country also experienced several fatalities, Guidry said. “So, it’s not a high level but it’s a level that keeps the amoeba from growing”.
It is especially terrifying, though, when Naegleria fowleri is found in our water system. Two other sites tested negative but met the chloramine requirement.
Officials with St. John the Baptist Parish said administrative staff, the Utilities Department and third-party consultants have taken precautionary measures in all water systems, instituting increased flushing, installing automatic flushers and slightly increasing chlorine levels parishwide to ensure that they are in compliance with DHH’s emergency rule.
It said the Consolidated Waterworks District No 1 will begin a 60-day chlorine burn to help ensure that any remaining amoeba in the system are eliminated.
Louisiana officials began using the new treatment method because they were finding that it was more hard to detect brain-eating amoebas using previous methods that screened smaller amounts of water, said Jimmy Guidry, a state health officer. It will also conduct a similar burn in the Houma Water system as a precaution. So far, DHH has tested a total of 21 systems for the amoeba.
The health agency pointed out that infections caused by the Naegleria fowleri amoeba are very rare, and that testing for the microorganism drinking water used by the public is relatively new and continuously evolving. Both parishes are conducting chlorine burns as well. Positive test results for Naegleria fowleri have been confirmed previously this summer in the parishes of Ascension and St. Bernard.
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Though it doesn’t technically “eat” the brain, the amoeba does secrete destructive enzymes that cause a disease called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, which leads to death in most sufferers.
