The officials of Houston warned residents to avoid tap water as it could be contaminated with a life-threatening brain-eating microbe on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020.
The brain-eating microbe named the Brazosport Water Authority is the free-living microscopic amoeba, or single-celled living organism,
The Texas Commission on Environmental warned Naegleria fowleri might have tainted its water supply.
As cited News24xx.com from the Associated Press reports, the residents of Houston using tap water for any purpose — including drinking or bathing.
But, now, it should be avoided in the cities Angleton, Brazoria, Clute, Dow Chemical, Freeport, Lake Jackson, Oyster Creek, Richwood, Rosenburg, TDCJ Clemens, and TDCJ Wayne Scott.
Naegleria fowleri is often referred to as the “brain-eating amoeba” and is usually found in warm freshwater like lakes and rivers, as well as soil.
Those infected with the amoeba are often tainted water enters the body through the nose — often a result of swimming or diving in those bodies of freshwater — before traveling to the brain. The microbe then causes the usually fatal primary amebic meningoencephalitis, also known as PAM.
Those sources can include poorly chlorinated pool water as well as heated or contaminated tap water.
