New test results show there are no longer any detectable brain-eating amoeba in a part of the Terrebonne Parish water system that tested positive for the organism earlier this month, local water officials announced Wednesday.
Water officials announced earlier this month that independent testing found the presence of Naegleria fowleri, which can cause fatal brain swelling and tissue destruction, near the southern tip of La. 665 in Pointe-aux-Chenes.
To kill off the organism, the Terrebonne Consolidated Waterworks District switched its disinfectant to a pure chlorine wash, which will continue for the next 45 days. The water supply will also continue to be tested for the organism, water officials said.
Infection from the amoeba is rare because it can only enter the brain when it is pushed into the nasal cavity with force. However, if the amoeba does make it to the brain, it is almost always deadly. From 1962 to 2016, there were 143 reported cases, out of which only four people survived.
Someone cannot catch the infection from simply drinking contaminated water because stomach acid will destroy it.
Most infections occur during the summer months when people go swimming or diving in contaminated waters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The onset of an infection, which has symptoms similar to meningitis, usually begins about five days after exposure to the organism and progresses rapidly, according to the CDC. Early symptoms usually are fever, headaches and nausea, and later symptoms include hallucination, loss of balance and seizures.
In Louisiana, two residents died after flushing out their sinuses with neti pots in 2011, and a 4-year-old boy died after spending hours playing in a Slip ’N Slide in 2013.
In 2015 and 2017, the organism was found within Terrebonne Parish at the last fire hydrant on Island Road in Isle de Jean Charles, a different spot than this year.
