The reason, however, that this organism is a perennial favorite of hypochondriacs is the fact that out of those 145 people, only four have survived. 145 infections out of hundreds of millions of exposures to freshwater amoeba habitats, not to mention probably millions of incidences of water filling nasal passages. There have only been 145 known infections from 1962 to 2018. Most researchers believe that even if these events occur, the odds of the amoeba then continuing its journey to your brain are infinitely small. fowleri specimen triggered to mutate to the next stage in its life-cycle by the rising water temperature.
If while in a still or near still body of water on a very hot day where the water temperature is above roughly 85 degrees Fahrenheit you manage to stir up the sediment on the floor and the water enters your nostrils with great force, managing to flood your sinus cavities, then it is possible that some of that water may have contained a free floating N. The name and the danger of this organism come from a very particular set of circumstances. fowleri is endemic, and we encounter these organisms millions and millions of times every year, completely harmlessly.
Scientists estimate that there are billions of these microorganisms in the freshwater bodies of North America, where N. If you spend any time looking at hypochondria forums, a recurring commonly held fear is that of Naegleria fowleri, better known as the brain-eating amoeba. What brought you to this idea of two isolated, paranoid individuals reconnecting during quarantine?