Brain Eating Amoeba Alert in one Louisiana Water supply

[Bob]

LaPLACE, La. — St. John the Baptist Parish officials are carefully monitoring the parish's water system after test results confirmed the presence of Naegleria fowleri, which is a deadly amoeba that can infect the brain.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, or DHH, issued an emergency order late Wednesday requiring the parish to perform a chlorine burn throughout its water system to kill the amoeba.

"The parish utilities department is taking immediate actions to fully chlorinate the water system and eliminate the threat," Robottom added.

However, with the holiday weekend approaching, residents are being asked to use caution.

"It is safe to drink, to eat, and use to cook," Robottom said.

"The problem is to make sure that you keep precautions to prevent the water from going up your nose. Now understanding it's the holiday weekend, swimming and slip 'n' slide, those are all areas to proceed with caution."

(And one is going to take a shower and not get water on the face, how, again?)

(SOURCE)

HERE ARE THE WARNING and PRECAUTION STEPS

• Do not allow water to go up your nose or sniff water into your nose when bathing, showering, washing your face, or swimming in small hard plastic/blow-up pools.

• Do not jump into or put your head under bathing water (bathtubs, small hard plastic/blow-up pools) - walk or lower yourself in.

• Do not allow children to play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers, as they may accidentally squirt water up their nose. Avoid slip-n-slides or other activities where it is difficult to prevent water going up the nose.

• Do run bath and shower taps and hoses for five minutes before use to flush out the pipes. This is most important the first time you use the tap after the water utility raises the disinfectant level.

• Do keep small hard plastic/blow-up pools clean by emptying, scrubbing, and allowing them to dry after each use.

• Do use only boiled and cooled, distilled or sterile water for making sinus rinse solutions for neti pots or performing ritual ablutions.

• Do keep your swimming pool adequately disinfected before and during use. Adequate disinfection means: pools: free chlorine at 1-3 parts per million (ppm) and pH 7.2-7.8, and hot tubs/spas: free chlorine 2-4 parts per million (ppm) or free bromine 4-6 ppm and pH 7.2-7.8.

• If you need to top off the water in your swimming pool with tap water, place the hose directly into the skimmer box and ensure that the filter is running. Do not top off by placing the hose in the body of the pool.

[ghostrider]

A close childhood friend died from a very rare disease where your blood just completely leaks out of your skin while you sleep , they called it some kind of flesh eating bacteria ... lumberjack big , strong , star football player , and state champion wrestler... one day without symptoms , boom , gone ... brain eating Amoeba scares the crap out of me ...

[Bob]

This amoeba thing has been in fresh water ponds.. There is a thread 'bout swimming in ponds in Kansas, and other instances of kids dying getting the amoeba on their face (in their nose too), then the amoeba spreads into the brain via the nerves in the nose..

This is not the first time either that it's been found in the Louisiana water supply of various Parishes (counties).

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...eba_found.html

The water system in Reserve, Garyville and Mount Airy has tested positive for a potentially deadly brain-eating bacteria, the state Department of Health and Hospitals said Wednesday.

John the Baptist Parish's Water District No. 1, which serves 12,577 people in those east bank communities.

The state imposed higher disinfectant levels after a 4-year-old boy Mississippi boy contracted the amoeba during a visit to St. Bernard Parish and died.

2011 the amoeba was blamed for two deaths in DeSoto Parish after being found in the water system there.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...ent_natal.html

"St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom has called a press conference Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, to discuss the presence of a potentially deadly brain-eating amoeba in the parish's water system."