Avoid These Tiny Bits of Killer Fluff (If You Can) 

Go to www.squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

The Southern California medical center I used to work at had a case of Naegleria fowleri in either the late '70s before I started working in the lab there. Luckily, the Lab Tech doing the spinal fluid cell count noticed amoeboid movement in some of the cells It was early in the disease process they were able to successfully diagnose and treat the boy, who survived. The diagnostic problem is that the disease is extremely rare, so a viral cause for the meningitis is much, much more likely. The only primary test for amoeba is to find it visually in the spinal fluid with a microscope and differentiate it from the white blood cells present. Not only is that difficult, but by the time you do, most often the amoeba has literally eaten it's way through too much brain tissue for it to be survivable. And Amphotericin B is a rather nasty drug; not something you'd want to toss around prophylactically if you don't specifically need it.

These amoeba typically live in warm water in muddy sediments. If you aren't deliberately stirring up sediments or submerging your head underwater excessively, you can reduce your risk significantly. Wearing noseplugs can also reduce your risk.

Hearing Hank again is like a cozy blanket around my brain. 😄👍

One thing I think was missed here, is that our immune system CAN defend against the amoeba, so if you inhale infected water, death is not a foregone conclusion. There is a really great Kurzgesagt video on the process of brain-eating amoeba infection that goes into more depth on the different stages. This video, however has pretty pictures and nice music

thank you Hank for everything you do. And thank you James! and everyone else!

Was always taught to block my nose in dam swimming

I'm surprised the infection rate is so low in the US. In FL it seemed like once a year a classmate would end up in the hospital with meningitis for weeks and possibly never be seen again. People always claimed the victim got it while swimming. Now I wonder how many actually had a different type of meningitis.

I'm glad you pointed out the rarity with which people actually die this way. It's definitely got that horror factor that makes you want to change your behavior, even if the chances of you getting it is quite low. Hell, you're far more likely to drown in that same body of water. If only all the mundane things that are far more likely to kill you could elicit such a horrified reaction to get people to make changes to their behavior.

One of my top 5 irrational fears.

Oh no. That brought back memories of my anxious childhood in South Australia. Drank from a warm hose, water up nose, was terrified I had amoebic meningitis.

As someone who just had surgery to fix a basilar skull fracture thru my left nostril, not 2 weeks ago this freaks me out lol

I feel like you guys only told half the story here. As soon as it got to the all the factory bulb, the rest of the story was just glossed over. Anyways, I usually love your work. This one left a bit to be desired though.

I live next to a river and it gets hot in the summer. I think about these guys sometimes.

I was a commercial diver in south Florida for years. I was often spending all day in the most stagnant polluted bodies of water you can imagine. I only suffered an ear infection once though. My biggest danger was being buried alive in the holes I was dredging. A co-worker of mine actually dredged into a sink hole and made someone's whole back yard disappear. It was my turn to be on the boat and I pulled him out by the umbilical faster than anyone. Alligators and poisonous snakes were another problem but not too much. Whoever was on the boat would throw rocks to scare the alligator away but when an old alligator who didn't care sometimes came along we packed up, got out, and drove the boat around to scare it off.

These were the culprit in House season 2, the "Euphoria" double episode. They thought it was meningitis too!

I saw the case of the boy in Australia get covered on "monster's inside me" it was so scary how that poor kid got the ameba up his nose 👃🏻. Went right to his brain 🧠 and he passed away, all from a contaminated water source in a small rural town in the outback desert region of west Australia.

Glad you're over the first (worst?) part of your treatment, Hank! Hope Part Two is much easier, and that nasty C-word is kicked completely to the curb. ❤ Love this interesting video, too, LOL!

Sometimes I want to go swimming in the local creeks and river. But I live right by a city, so the waters have a _lot_ more stuff I don't want up in my mucous membranes than the extremely rare chance of brain-eating amoebas. So I harness the irrational fear to stop myself from taking a dip since road runoff, broken glass, random mystery garbage, industrial contaminants, and the microbiomes of far more likely things that could make me sick. So just chlorinated pools and the ocean for me.

So good hearing your JTTMC voice. So calming. Thanks so much, Hank. For everything you do.

I have been terrified of these things for so long lol

I was hoping for a more detailed description of what happens in the brain when they attack and what causes ppl to pass away

Are microscopes strong enough to see individual proteins? Specifically a prion

Hearing Hank was a surprise! I’m enjoying our guests but Hank will always be OG. Godspeed Hank, glad you’re putting your health first

I do wish they went into more detail on why it invaded the sinuses (because it is both amazing, cool, and horrifying!). But it’s still great nonetheless

Hank!!!!!! It's just better with you. Everything is better with you. And John. He is doing great.

I don’t know if I would call this video a success, when although I listened intently, I still don’t understand how or why it is deadly sometimes, and why it is usually, not.

I’m so glad Hank is narrating again 💖

Why can't we make it standard practice to ask patients with meningitis how recently they went swimming?

it would suck to get water up your nose and then later die because something ate your brain

You describe it in the singular, but when you describe actions, like releasing a compound, you’re actually talking about a whole bunch of them doing the same thing at the same time, right. Rather an infection than it merely having been infected, by a few, right?

Perfect voiceover dude, its refreshing to hear you speaking in a more nature documentary tone vs the “energized/engaging” typical youtube higher paced style. ❤thank you for all you do.

Outstanding. Thank you, Hank! And many thanks to everyone who makes the Microcosmos possible. Bravo!

Get well soon Hank. Hope you’re doing as well as possible.

This is why I was told, as a child, not to put my head under the waters of Rotorua's hot springs.

Would strong horseradish kill these bastards? The stuff at the local steakhouse is potent enought to feel like a brillo pad on my brain...

So I heard “amoebaflatulance” instead of amoeba flagellates. Damn funny.

amoeba: where the fu- human: I AM *DYING* amoeba: oh amoeba: that didn't help me at all but uhh sorry to hear that

Amoeba can go in your brain if u swim in fresh water 😅😅😅 more easy to win lottery

Another fantastic episode and you remain in our thoughts Hank and everything James does is always appreciated

New nightmare unlocked. Thanks.

In a way, this video 100% validates people with germaphobia. Other than that, good video!

Thank you, I guess, for this very distressing knowledge. I'm confident I'll never forget it... no matter how hard I try.

In case you missed it, be sure to stop by the channel's community tab to see the '50s-style horror-movie-poster art they made!

Well that was rather depressing. Thank goodness it seems to be a rare occurrence. They could make a dystopian movie or show reminiscent of The Last Of Us about a mutated version of this Amoeba the wipes out most of humanity, if AI doesn’t get us first 😬

I had meningitis 12 years back. Although not sure what caused it but the thoughts of that severe headaches still get me chills down my spine. The slightest movement of even nodding head was unbearable

I will never pick my nose again. Or breathe through my nose. I will just be a mouth-breather.

I'm a Kiwi with family in Rotorua, so these little guys actually _are_ what I think of when the phrase "brain eating amoeba" comes up!

Does it only take one amoeba to make its way to the olfactory bulb to kill a person?

This was the culprit on one of the greatest episodes of HOUSE MD ever made.

Great to hear your voice again Hank. Get well soon.

Thank you Hank Green, truly one of the greatest orators of my generation, we love you man!~

Those previous symptoms sound like sinus headache symptoms. My hypochondriac mind will keep me up tonight.

if the person dies, then so will the amoebas. but i guess they dont see this far.

In the 1980's as I recall, the educational message to Western Australian children was "don't *_jump_* into the pool", especially on hot days. Such activity often drives water into the nostrils where the trouble starts, as described in this video.

Have you ever done a video on Lyme Spirochetes? They eat brains too in a much larger number (resembling a variety of problems from meningitis to dementia in its late untreated stage) But their morphology is interesting, they can change to ball cysts too but have a more conceited acces to organs using specific chemical signas that can get through organ barriers or change the immune system signals (they eat collagen so basically any organ, usually early stage is an immune reaction while they eat your joints so is an acute arthritis)

I was wondering why you were making a video about asbestos, then I saw the description.

I was stationed in Western Australia in the late 1970s at a joint RAN/USN base. The meningitis cases that cropped up on base were traced to a swimming pool's water. All three cases were young kids who apparently jumped/cannonballed into the pool which drove water up into their sinuses. The source was traced very quickly and was neutralized. But it sure was a frightening time.

Hank is a continuing source of comfort and childlike wonder

What a great film this would make... "The killer amoebas"! Thanks for the nightmares 🤣 But seriously, I love your videos.. Thanks

In 2008 I had endocarditis doctors couldn't explain how I got it nore could they identify the bacteria that at my leaflets of my mitral valve I had less then a 20% chance of surviving and part of my heart is in my left kidney which has died due to the blockages of heart valve

Yo my meningitis Masters your videography is freaking Stellar these days not sure if he got a new camera or a new techniques or both but it's freaking awesome awesome

Doesn't have to happen a lot, when it comes to your single life, it only have to happen once. The lucky man or lady might be reading this right now.

I cannot believe I watched this after swimming in the lake yesterday 🙃

I am a studying marine biologist and scuba diver with no fear of water, but my irrational fear of these little guys are the reason I do not really “do” lakes or ponds. No thank you.

Rule 1# if in somewhere hot & moist, only swim in seawater. If you gotta swim in a pool, make sure it is properly maintained.

Fuck yes Hank's back

Can you do videos showing what happens to samples when contaminated with different stuff? Like drop some lead shavings in it or something

Well now I think I'll skip lunch.

I think we should sign a treaty or something with amoebas. That's unaccaptable.

Diagnosis is difficult Hence the lack of cases..

I'm confused. Is there a certain amount of water that has to be in your nose or does any amount screw you over?

You should put some naeglaria fowleri on a slide with some neurons so we can see exactly what it does

For anyone getting worked up by this…a bit of info and reassurance Don’t swim in freshwater that spends time consistently warm. Worse still if stagnant. The amoeba spends its days eating bacteria in silt. Don’t get rowdy or swim around in water where you could disturb the sediments and get that up your nose. It’s not too hard to avoid hot water where you can stir up the silt. Something harder to account for is when water parks and other recreation places don’t adequately chlorinate, but statistically this is close to a meaninglessly small probability and is truly exceptional compared with the number of visitors per year. But as others have pointed out, it’s likely that the vast (I mean VAST) majority of cases, the immune system kills the bug before anything happens. It’s something we would only ever note when this fails, which could potentially be a very rare occurrence and we don’t even realise it. I swam around in hot reservoirs and streams in the southern US for years as do literally millions of people every year so it’s obviously not a huge risk. Think of all the boys kicking water up each others’ noses in mucky streams. Just once in a very blue moon, that turns out to be a real mistake, but a very rare one indeed and not hard to avoid. To keep your mind at peace, avoid the situations where you really know are the extreme conditions. A bit like don’t walk on the road on a Saturday night wearing black clothes. Also, be wary of Neti pots with tap water, mainly if you don’t live in a city, again easy to do, as you can always boil and/or chlorinate your water if you really needed to.

Wonderful as ever and I learned something new, thank you all so much for your hard work!

Dude just go to any hot Florida pond, you'll find them

In New Zealand it seems to be a thing found in thermal hot pools

When I read the title, i thought it was gonna be about asbestos.

Good to hear from you again Hank, I hope you are well. ❤

Mmmm yes Hank make the brain feel good

These are why I will not get in ponds or lakes in Texas. And why I only use distilled water for my sinus rinses. Seems like there are cases of brain-eating amoeba every year now. Cases are still very rare but increasing in number as our climate temperatures rise.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoOOŒÖOOOOOØOOOOOOO HANK HAS RETURNED

Ahhh my daily dose of existential dread

You could work together with Kurzgesagt, since they also made a video about Naegleria fowleri.

@journeytomicro I know it might be nitpicking, but you should really get rid of the multiplication factor in the upper left corner. It's completely useless since you can't control for the size of the window that the viewer is watching your video in. You can only correctly use that type of indicator when you have control such as when you print a picture out and have it calibrated. Having the scale in the bottom right corner is the only size indicator you should have. On the final view with the amoebas swimming around it has a 50 micrometer scale and says 400X, when on my monitor in a normal window it measures out to about 1200X, not 400X. That gives people an unrealistic idea of how big an amoeba really is. It would be about 400X if you printed it out about 4 inches wide. That gives people an unrealistic idea of how big an amoeba really is.

I've always just pictured a brain eating Amoeba to look like the Amoeba I studied in Science class absorbing a Water Flea. I have Always loved Science and Always will!

She'll only come out at nights The lean and hungry type Nothing is new I've seen her here before Watching and waiting Ooh, she's sittin' in you But her eyes are on your nasal floor She's a brain-eater Watch out boy, she'll chew you up. 🎶

N. Fowlerii: Eey dap me up can i chill in ur CNS??! Oh sick. Its cozy up in ur brain case yo. Lol My brain:😂😢💀

hey i love the videos, and the visuals are great as always, but also i feel like focusing on the "inspirational" sounding soundbites is a misuse of the platform you have. This video told me nothing about this amoeba, besides that is is deadly, rare, in water, and likes my nose. Id personally really like to see more education going on in these videos rather than empty phrases that vaguely make me feel smart and safe.

Wow! I live in South Australia and I had no idea the first cases were reported here. I always thought the brain noms amoeba were first identified around Florida.

The perfect pet for summer vacation. They go where you go, they eat what you got. Quiet, shy, little wigglers, just looking for that unused real estate.

0:34 you’re welcome 🙄

I use a Neti pot regularly to control seasonal nasal congestion. Learning about Naegleria has made me very diligent about boiling the flush water.

We do what we always have done and we hope and pray that we dont change the macro world in such a way that would make this organism decide that it wants to become more mainstream. Because that's how it works. Nature tries to create balance and harmony and we want what we want and there is usually a mess after the meeting. . . . . . And then nature has to work at bringing balance and harmony again. .

i have those shit in my spa ... i scap recoverad an old heat pump seem that shit was contaminated with those ... just got an external otitis ..;

i'm gonna give this a Like - cuz Science is cool but im keeping my flamethrower ready!

I think about that lake I jumped into... and the stories of people being affected over a decade later...

Makes me glad that the river close by is freezing cold even on the hottest days

I feel an unexplained need to blow out my nose 😂 I have *no idea* why 😂😂😂 weird 😂😂😂

You've got a Lovely Talent of narrating! Love the funny yuckiness sounds 😛