Health officials warn of 'brain-eating' amoebas in northern US states

Climate change has caused the "brain-eating" amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, to expand its range northward, infecting more people in northern US states in recent years. The amoeba typically lives in soil and warm fresh water and can infiltrate the human brain and spinal cord by entering a person's nose, causing a nearly always fatal infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Health care providers in northern states are advised to probe whether patients with meningitis symptoms have recently swum in warm fresh water and to contact the CDC if PAM is suspected. Miltefosine, a drug that has killed N. fowleri in the lab and slain other species of brain-eating amoeba in people, has been used to treat PAM.