In a survival situation why fix what aint broke?
Im almost 46 and never have done a nose flush and wouldnt consider one in a non sanitary survival situation, the simple task of boiling water when no running water and hotwater heaters makes it a real chore, that heated water will have other higher priority uses than flushing boogers.
Last Summers news:
The amoeba, called
Naegleria fowleri, is the only type that infects humans and is more than 95% lethal. The first death in 2011 occurred in June in Louisiana, according to the CDC.
A 16-year-old died Saturday after becoming infected by an amoeba in Brevard County, Florida, according to
CNN's affiliate WFTV. The amoeba could have entered the teen's body as the teen swam in a nearby river
In another case, the Virginia Department of Health confirmed Friday that a child from central Virginia died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, which is caused by the amoeba.
The Richmond Times Dispatch said the child was a 9-year-old boy from Henrico County.
The child died within the last few weeks, said Dr. Keri Hall, the state's director of epidemiology. She declined to share other details. Virginia's last confirmed case was in 1969.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/InfectionControl/30283 Just when you thought the U.S. was safe from amoebas . . . it turns out it’s not.
This summer saw a micro-burst of brain-eating amoeba attacks (well, only three, but that was plenty for the press to get its panties in a bunch over it. How could you
not about “brain-eating amoebas”?) in people who swam in U.S. freshwater lakes, ponds, etc. You’d think the commencement of North American winter would preclude further possibility of attack. Alas, it does not. For this is the “amoeba’s” new secret weapon:
the neti pot.
The notorious neti pot. Creative Commons image by Kurt Yoder, 2004. Click image for license and link. Yes, the Neti pot. For those of you unfamiliar with this contraption, the idea is that instead of honking your way to kingdom come into a scratchy paper tissue, you can gracefully irrigate your way to an obstruction-free breathing by pouring the contents of a Neti pot into one nostril and out the other. Exhibit A:
A neti pot in action. Creative Commons image by Aikhan. Click for license and link. Although I’ve never tried this, I’d say it’s probably easier said than done, at least to start. But it does seem to be effective, once mastered, based on what I’ve read.
Unless, that is, the tap water you use to fill the pot is home to some wayward “amoebas” called
Naegleria fowleri. Somehow they can slip through the microbial Fort Knox of some U.S. water treatment plants and make it into tap water (at least in Louisiana).
How Do Amoebas Get in the Brain? The moniker "
brain-eating amoeba" makes naegleria sound like tiny zombies wandering about looking for a way into your skull. But brains are accidental food for them, says Jonathan Yoder, MPH, who tracks the deadly amoeba for the CDC.
"It is normally eating bacteria in its natural environment, but for some reason it does use the brain as a food source when it gets into humans," Yoder tells WebMD.
If you were to drink a glass of water infested with naegleria, you would not get a brain infection. Infection occurs only after water (or perhaps dust) containing the amoeba gets into the nose.
This appears to happen most often when people are diving, water skiing, or performing water sports in which water is forced into the nose. However,
infections have occurred in people who dunked their heads in hot springs or who used untreated tap water to cleanse their nostrils.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/23/brain-eating-amoeba-cases-puzzle-and-worry-scientists.html http://news.discovery.com/human/brain-eating-amoeba-110818.html http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20110818/brain-eating-amoeba-faq
