Naegleria fowleri

Naegleria fowleri is an excavate found in water, mostly fresh water. The selection of water types where Naegleria can be found are rivers, ponds, lake, and hot springs. Many individuals believe that this can only be in water. However, it has also been discovered living in soil. In fact, there is no evidence-based research that places it in salt water. Fowleri has been identified as having the potential to attack and damage an individual’s nervous system (CNS). Furthermore, it can be deadly once it gets to the CNS. Once it gets to this point, the percentage for survival is less than two percent. Fowleri’s routes of transmission include the nose through the olfactory mucosa that gives access to the CNS through the cribriform plate. Once the organism reaches the brain, it destroys cells by means of sucking apparatus from the cell surface. It then becomes harmful and causing meningoencephalitis (PAM).