Neti pots are dangerous if used improperly, DHH warns (2nd Death this Year)

[Sgent]

Louisiana health regulators warned residents Tuesday about the dangers of using neti pots improperly. A neti pot, which looks like a genie's lamp, is commonly used to irrigate sinuses. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals issued its warning following a second death this year caused by Naegleria fowleri, the so-called brain-eating amoeba.

A 51-year-old DeSoto Parish woman died after using tap water in a neti pot to irrigate her sinuses and became infected by the deadly amoeba, which entered the body through her nose. In June, a 20-year-old St. Bernard Parish man died under the same circumstances.

"If you are irrigating, flushing, or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution," said Louisiana State Epidemiologist, Dr. Raoult Ratard. "Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose."

<cut>

DHH said the amoeba causes the disease primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection that leads to the destruction of brain tissue. In its early stages, symptoms may be similar to symptoms of bacterial meningitis and can include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and stiff neck. Later symptoms include confusion, loss of balance, seizures and hallucinations.

http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2011/12/neti_pots_are_dangerous_if_use.html

[Ian David]

1. Obama's trying to ban nose spray! n/t

[BuddhaGirl]

2. unrec for hyperbolic headline

it was the water she used, NOT the neti pot...as the story says, one can get this infection from swimming as well :eyes:

[HereSince1628]

3. IOWs snorting Acanthamoeba is hazardous to your frontal lobe...

As an undergraduate fascinated by parasitic life forms, I enthusiastically read about these things and wondered about the dynamics of how these wee beasties would get up someone's nose, and imagined things like swimming upside down in a cattle tank and having dirty amoeba bearing water splashing over my cribiform plate. It gave me the willies.

Later, as I worked with health departments and read case histories of these oddities presented in the MMWR, I realized the world is full of things that go wrong...like neti pots and nasal irrigation!...People do that darnedest things to try to feel better.

[saras]

4. WTF? Her TAP WATER has BRAIN-EATING AMOEBAS??? Who cares about neti pots? Baths can kill.

Holy fucking mother of God. I snort a big wad of shower water up my nose every day and blow it out - clears the junk out after sleeping. But if I do this in Louisiana, fucking AMOEBAS will EAT MY BRAIN.

Is there something wrong here?

[godai]

5. Maybe well water?

Seems unlikely that amoeba could survive normal water treatment but not willing to bet my life on it.

[kestrel91316]

6. I am not surprised that Naegleria fowleri is found in Louisiana water supplies.

I doubt we have it here in Los Angeles. We don't use stagnant swamp water. They pretty much HAVE to.

[Possumpoint]

7. On Her Doctor's Recommendation

My wife has used a neti pot with medicine mixed in to assist with sinus headache problem for years. Have always used filtered tap water. Guess I'll have to change that now.

[gkhouston]

10. Boil it. n/t

[HuckleB]

8. Definitely a misleading headline.

I'm with those who wonder about the water treatment in LA. That seems to be the bigger issue, no?

[silverweb]

9. Absolutely.

The problem isn't the neti pots, it's the tap water. Neti pot users should be warned to use only purified water, though.

[LeftishBrit]

11. To be fair, anything is dangerous if used improperly

To put it into perspective, a lot more people have been killed as a result of climbing stairs than using Neti pots.

What worries me more is that the tap water contained the amoeba in the first place.