Welp, if I had any desire to go to a hot spring, I sure don't now.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
16 points (100.0% liked)
News
224 readers
1 users here now
Breaking news and current events worldwide.
founded 1 year ago
I've read about them and it's fascinating how it happens. Brain eating amoeba are super common, but it's actually rare that they kill you because they don't actually want to be in your brain, they just get lost and confused. There's a thread that connects your nose to your brain looks like food to them so they follow it up there. And your body just has a hard time killing it for some reason. Then it reaches the brain where defenses are weak and just goes wild eating, at which point you are done for.
I think of them like little lost sharks. They don't know what's going on or where they are, but they will mess everything up just because that's what they do.
Well, f*@k, I was just in hot springs 2 days ago...
It's pretty rare and only a potential problem if you put your head under the water. Here in New Zealand we have lots of hot springs and that's the reason there's signs saying don't put your head under the water.
If it’s that dangerous the signs should really say, “Don’t enter. Risk of death.”
It's not though, it's just that not putting your head under is 100% effective at preventing the already very rare occurrence
I guess it seems like such a severe outcome that it’s just not rolling the dice in it. Especially since it’s just basically getting into hot water.
It is only a problem if it gets inside your olfactory nerve.