This Podcast Will Kill You1 Jun 2021

Ep 74 Naegleria fowleri: The "brain-eating amoeba"

Every summer, when the warm weather rolls around and the local ponds and lakes heat up enough for a tempting dip, remember that there may be something else lurking in those waters besides the people looking to cool off. Naegleria fowleri, the topic of today’s episode, makes its home in warm, fresh waters, and that’s mostly where it stays, until a chance encounter between human and amoeba introduces it to a new locale: the brain. In this episode, we explore the brutal biology of the so-called ‘brain-eating amoeba’, walk through its recent but global history, and discuss the possible future of this pathogen, both good (e.g. treatments, awareness) and bad (e.g. climate change, land-use change).

Even though this is a very rare disease, its deadly potential is deeply felt by those impacted by it. We are very grateful to Dr. Sandra Gompf, who shares her story of how her son Philip’s fatal encounter with Naegleria fowleri led her to create Amoeba Season, a Philip T Gompf Memorial Fund for Infectious Disease Research project. You can learn more about Dr. Gompf’s story on her website, amoeba-season.com, where you can also find many helpful links for raising awareness, fact sheets on amoebic meningitis, and a wonderful set of resources for healthcare professionals. As Dr. Gompf says, amoebic meningitis is 99% fatal but 100% preventable, and the best method of prevention is knowledge - Amoeba Season is a great place to start.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(292)

Ep 214 Boogers: Digging for treasure

Hard and crusty. Green and gloopy. Clear and watery. Boogers come in a veritable rainbow of colors and a full spectrum of textures from liquid to solid. They’re really quite impressive if you think ab...

30 Jun 1h 2min

Special Episode: Dr. Carl Elliott & The Occasional Human Sacrifice

Stories of unethical medical experimentation often center around the individuals who spearheaded such atrocities or highlight how patient protection laws were changed in response to the studies. But r...

23 Jun 57min

Ep 213 Burns Part 2: It’s like sci-fi but real

At the turn of the 20th century, a severe burn was often a death sentence. Today, that is no longer the case. Over the past eighty years, burn care has undergone a profound transformation thanks to cr...

16 Jun 58min

Ep 212 Burns Part 1: The first million or so years

Burns have been a part of the human experience since our hominin relatives began controlling fire 1.5 million years ago. Until very recently, we’ve been limited in our ability to manage burn wounds wi...

9 Jun 55min

Special Episode: Alexandra Sifferlin & The Elusive Body

An accurate diagnosis can give us so much. It can give us a path forward. It can give us answers to long-standing questions. And it can give us much-needed hope. Yet many people around the world wait ...

2 Jun 51min

Ep 211 Motion Sickness: It comes in waves

It comes on sneakily. You become aware of your stomach. You break out in a cold sweat. Your mouth fills with saliva. And before you know it, you’re leaning over the side of the boat (or out of the car...

26 Mai 1h 16min

Ep 210 Histoplasmosis: Bats, birds, and budding yeast

Once thought to be a rare, always fatal disease, histoplasmosis is now recognized as one of the most prevalent fungal infections in North America. It infects hundreds of thousands of people every year...

19 Mai 1h 18min

Special Episode: Dr. Olivia Weisser & The Dreaded Pox

In a time when smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and typhus ran rampant through the streets of London, there was another disease that instilled even more fear than these other killers: syphilis. So fea...

12 Mai 51min