Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 13:42:55 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: brain-eating
In-Reply-To: <093020071422.13346.46FFB127000EB3A60000342222120207849B900C030E9C@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Sam,
My 88' GL doesn't swim either - but I do. So the question I have to ask
every time I go out into wild waters - beyond my hot tub or swimming
pool - is what is in those waters that might want to eat me? It is a
very fair question, since wild waters everywhere in the world support
all kinds of wild life - from microbes to sharks - and in many cases
neither are picky about what - or who - is for dinner!
In Alaska waters you can get attacked by the larvae of a little critter
whose life cycle includes snails and duck poop. And we got lots of both
up there. The larvae get confused, think you are a snail and try to
burrow into you through the skin. Creates an awful itch - but I never
heard of any one dying from it, but I wouldn't want to take the chance
and be first.
In waters in South America snails carry critters called liver flukes
that burrow into you, find a home in your liver, and cause you to swell
horribly.
In Africa there is a little beastie called a cyclops that lives in the
water of rivers and eats the eggs of certain parasitic worms. When
someone drinks the water, the cyclops is ingested, and in the digestive
tract this little larvae comes crawling out of the now being digested
cyclops, burrows through your gut and makes his way to the arms and legs
just above the hands and feet. It makes a little hole in the skin, and
every time it senses water, it pokes it little tail out and squirts eggs
into the water which the cyclops eats, and the cycle begins again. They
treat this thing by teasing it with water to stick it's tail out, then
a string is tied to the tail and the other end of the string is tied to
a stick. Each day, that stick is tightened just a fraction, keeping
tension on the worm. Eventually he is pulled from the body.
Another little water borne beastie enters the body and makes his way to
the white of the eye. He can often be seen coiled up in the white of the
eye next to the iris. Dunno what they do for him.
In South America you can - in the water - get eaten by red bellied
piranha or have your bodily orifices probed by spikey cannarou - very
painful to remove as I understand.
Lots of nasties live in the water. Remember the old movie advertisement
"Don't Go Near the Water" - well, there are more reasons than one.
Regards,
Sam Conant wrote:
> Whoops! My 84 Westy doesn't swim.
> SamC
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: Mike Riley <mkriley@FUSE.NET>
>
>
>> this article was full of sensationalism and wrong facts.
>>
>> My mother did a lot of the early work on this at the epa,
>> it is called parasitic encephalitis, the ameoba just reproduces untill it
>> physicially
>> blocks the blood flow. It can be cured with antibiotics if it is properly
>> diagnosed in time.
>> mike
>>
>
>
>
