All articles tagged with #sinus rinse
A 71-year-old Texas woman died after contracting the deadly brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri from using tap water in her sinus rinse, highlighting the importance of using only distilled, sterile, or boiled water for nasal irrigation to prevent such infections.
Many unanswered questions remain after a brain-eating amoeba likely killed someone in Charlotte County, possibly by rinsing their sinuses with tap water. The health department and commissioners have declined to comment, leaving the community and the family of the victim, Scott Schmitz, in the dark. The only information released is that officials are investigating whether the victim used tap water or a sinus rinse. Meanwhile, Charlotte County Utilities will change the disinfection process of its water out of an abundance of caution, but it's unclear why. Brain-eating amoebae must live in water that’s at least 75 to 80 degrees, and experts initially theorized the killer amoeba had to come from well water, but where Schmitz lived and died in Englewood, there is no well water.