Naegleria fowleri: The Brain-eating Amoeba

A Reflection Paper by Earl John E. Delorino of BSMT-2A

Naegleria fowleri, commonly known for being the brain-eating amoeba, is a free-living
amoeba that can only be seen through the microscope. This amoeba is commonly found in
freshwater and soil. Naegleria folweri commonly infects a person only when it has entered the
body through the nose. Once the amoeba has entered the nose of its victim, it then travels to
the brain where it causes a rare and devastating infection called Primary Amoebic
Meningoencephalitis or PAM. The amoeba’s infection usually occurs when people go swimming
or diving in warm freshwater areas, like lakes and rivers.

In the video, we were guided by the host, named Mark, and his partner, Dr. Hunter
Hines, who is a microbial ecologist. Mark and Dr. Hunter went out to find warm bodies of
freshwater and collected some water samples from the area. Dr. Hunter used a caged-bottle
sampler which helped in collecting freshwater samples into a few bottle containers. As the two
hosts got back to the laboratory, they used a high-powered microscope to look for the specific
amoeba. There were different kinds of parasites that were discovered from each drop of
sample. Mark and Dr. Hunter realized that it would take them a long time to finally discover the
Naegleria fowleri amoeba with their current method of examining, thus, they decided to incubate
a part of a sample of freshwater to a specific temperature where only the Naegleria fowleri can
survive. In other words, they created an environment that only the specific amoeba can survive,
killing the other parasites surrounding it. They incubated the sample for a day. When they came
back to look at the incubated sample through the microscope, they almost immediately
discovered the brain-eating amoeba.

According to the video, it was mentioned that almost all of the cases documented of
people infected with Naegleria fowleri, are fatal. A total of 98% fatality rate on just the United
States itself. As the Naegleria fowleri enters the brain, the frontal lobe will be a “buffet”, as Mark
said, to be eaten by the said amoeba. Even if water almost always goes inside our noses
whenever we’re swimming, there is still a small chance that you will get the said amoeba since it
is very uncommon. When you’re one of the unlucky ones, the disease, Primary Amoebic
Meningoencephalitis, will most likely kill you in only a couple of days. Most cases are only
diagnosed when the infected person is in a fatal condition or when the person is already
deceased. There is no clear treatment path to this disease.