Brain Eating Amoeba Research Paper

There had been a brain eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, which had been found in the St. Bernard Parish’s water system. Naegleria fowleri, which is another name for the brain-eating amoeba, is a rare, but very deadly amoeba that goes through the nose and into the brain. It is a prokaryote since it is single-cellular and it lives in freshwater. Out of the 130 people to come into contact with the primary amoeba illness in the last 50 years, only one person has survived and most people have contracted the illness through swimming in freshwater bodies. In Louisiana, pipes connected to the infected water systems were flushed with extra chlorine and citizens were instructed to be very cautious about letting water get in their noses while swimming.

The contaminated water leaked into the sampling site but not the entire parish water system. According to the CDC, this brain-eating amoeba is fatal in 97 percent of those that are infected, and it causes brain swelling. Symptoms can occur five days after it enters the body. The first kind of symptoms include headache, vomiting, fever, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, etc. Symptoms get worse very quickly, and most who are infected die within a week. At the time of the 2011 deaths in DeSoto and St. Bernard parishes, officials could confirm the presence of the amoeba only in the homes of the deceased but not in the water systems. More advanced sampling technology is now available, so the water was tested. Exposure to Naegleria fowleri historically has occurred as a result of swimming or diving in warm freshwater lakes and rivers. An infection from Naegleria fowleri cannot occur when a person drinks water because stomach acid will kill the amoeba. In 2013, multiple cases were reported of this amoeba and since then there are now many ways to detect and better treat this

Some of the first living cells were prokaryotes and they are still exist in large quantities to this day. They help us in many ways and counteract many harmful things to humans like infections and other viruses. It is important to learn about the prokaryotes in Biology 1001 so that we can be aware of what is in prokaryotes and how they receive energy; a prokaryote can either be autotrophic or a heterotrophic. Knowing this will allow us to see how the amoeba burns nutrients like glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids to utilize other nutrients like hydrogen as a byproduct. Also, we can learn more about other organisms by taking apart what we know about the amoeba. By comparing it to the family tree of eukaryotes, we can begin to understand the amoeba more. The same can be said for many other organism comparisons, thus furthering how much we know and can learn by focusing on one organism. It is also important to know that prokaryotic cells reproduce by cell division. Since amoebas are a type of prokaryotic cell, that is how they reproduce. According to the article “Brain-Eating Amoeba” from the website webmd,when the conditions of the environment are not perfect the amoeba become immobile cysts. On the other hand, when conditions are perfect the Amoeba cysts become trophozoites which is the feeding form of Amoeba (Brain-Eating Amoeba). By learning the conditions that will make these prokaryotic cysts