Interesting organism

Ok, I'm so over cancer module now. I'm officially moving on to Infection and Immunity module and found it to be so much more interesting. No wonder most of our microbiology lecturers are so obsessed passionate about their jobs that they even have their own favourite micro-'babies'. I don't have a favourite micro-baby yet, but I do find this microorganism to be very ... erm interesting. Naegleria fowleri---the brain-eating amoeba. This little fellow invades human CNS by 'burrowing' up through your nasal mucosal then 'climbs' along your olfactory nerve fibres and up to your brain. Presenting symptoms are changes in olfactory perception (taste and smell), followed by vomiting, nausea, fever, headache, and the rapid onset of coma and death in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Here's an even less comforting fact: survival remains less than 1%, even with amphotericin B. But for DUNNERS, don't worry! N. Fowleri is typically found in warm fresh water, from 25–35 degrees Celsius. There's no way these fellows can fight the cold in Dunedin.