2nd Death from Neti Pot in LA Generates Warning

[308Mike]

Linkarooni:

Second Neti-Pot Death From Amoeba Prompts Tap-Water Warning
by Nancy Shute
01:32 pm, December 19, 2011


iStockphoto.com
Keep that tap water — and amoebas — out of your neti pot.

Washing noses with neti pots or squeeze bottles has become increasingly popular as a home remedy for colds, allergies and sinus trouble. But it's not such a great remedy if it kills you.

Now that two people have died from infection with brain-eating amoebas after using neti pots, doctors are warning: do not put tap water up your nose.

"Drinking water is good to drink, very safe to drink, but not to push up your nose," says Raoult Ratard, state epidemiologist for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Two residents of his state have died after using neti pots this year, the first known deaths associated with neti pots. "The first one could have been a fluke," Ratard told Shots. But now that we have a second one, the only explanation is the use of the neti pot."


The first death came in June, when a 20-year-old man died of encephalitis caused by infection with Naegleria fowleri. That amoeba is common in rivers and lakes, but only very rarely causes brain infections. Back in August, we reported on several deaths in children who had been jumping or diving in fresh water. But since adults are less likely to be doing cannonballs, they're also less likely to be infected.

Then in October, a 51-year-old Louisiana woman died of encephalitis. The doctor thought to ask if she used a neti pot. Both her brain tissue and her home's tap water tested positive for the microbe. Ratard says: "They found the amoeba, the lady was using a neti pot, and had no contact whatsoever with surface water."

Thus the new warning from Louisiana: If using a neti pot or other nasal irrigation device, use distilled or filtered water. Keeping the device clean is crucial, too, Ratard says. A neti pot, which looks like a small genie lamp, can be safely washed in a dishwasher, but squeeze bottles and other devices need to be scrubbed. All need to dry between uses. "If you let them dry completely, the amoebas are not going to survive long," Ratard says.

A quick survey of neti pots and squeeze bottles finds that the instructions recommend using boiled, distilled or filtered water. But like so many simple hygiene instructions, it's one that's easy to let slide. The prospect of death by brain-eating amoeba, rare though it is, should provide enough motivation to follow the rules.

[Netpackrat]

I'll keep my colds and sinus trouble, thanks.

[Precision]

YEah... that's why you use boiled or distilled water, and you make a concentrated saline solution out of it...

Morons.

+1

Darwin will find ways around the nanny state.

[rightisright]

I use filtered water from a 200' deep well in mine. I'm down from 5 sinus infections a year to 1. My sinuses have always been a mess. Two surgeries and they still don't drain properly. The neti pot has been great to me.


Looks like this critter is only an issue down south:

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostersh ... 0552.story

People can get meningitis from Naegleria -- which lives in freshwater in warm places, such as the southern U.S. -- when the organism manages to get past a thin part of the skull behind the nose called the cribiform plate, and thus is able to enter the fluid behind the brain. Most of the time, this happens when people go swimming in lakes and ponds and get water up their noses.

[blackeagle603]

+1 on the saline Chris.

[rightisright]

Do people actually do it w/o saline???

[Darrell]

I daresay the deaths in Louisiana say as much or more about water quality at the bottom of the watershed as they do about dangers of using neti pots. I've used saline nasal irrigation for 20 years or more, it's been a great help with sinus problems. I do it twice a day whether the sinuses are bothering me or not. And, I do it with the local tap water, which comes from the top of the watershed. We are blessed with very good water here. I use the Neilmed sinus rinse instead of a neti pot.

I have irrigated using the well water at my sister's up in ski country, and would prefer to use distilled there. Their well water has a whang to it which I do not like putting up my nose.

[Darrell]

I talked with the brother in law about this over the holidays--water quality and testing is what he does for a living. He concurred on the water quality being the problem in Louisiana, he basically described the water there as being "alive". My municipal water should be GTG, as it comes from around timberline, and is treated to a much higher quality/purity than older/lower watershed systems generally are. As for his well water, he tests it regularly. The "whang" in the water is mineralization, iron and such in the water. It is bug free.

[Steamforger]

I talked with the brother in law about this over the holidays--water quality and testing is what he does for a living. He concurred on the water quality being the problem in Louisiana, he basically described the water there as being "alive". My municipal water should be GTG, as it comes from around timberline, and is treated to a much higher quality/purity than older/lower watershed systems generally are. As for his well water, he tests it regularly. The "whang" in the water is mineralization, iron and such in the water. It is bug free.

I can remember several times in New Orleans when someone would drop the ball or something would go wrong and muni water would have chunks and bits of toilet paper in it. Once, a Wendy's in Kenner actually handed me a can of Coke with my order. The most recent boil order I know of was Nov of '10. Which would explain why my folks are on a 500' deep well...

[Aegis]

(again, very fast. In Tahoe, or Crater, the only deeper lakes in the U.S., they go as much as 20 years without a complete water change).

Partially because, in Crater at least, it's entirely rainwater fed. Nowhere for the old stuff to go except straight into the mountaintop.