Another deadly amoeba linked to neti pots, nasal rinsing
For years, scientists have known that people who use neti pots can become infected with a brain-eating amoeba if they use the wrong kind of water. Researchers recently linked a second kind of deadly amoeba to nasal rinsing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report that for the first time connects Acanthamoeba infections to neti pots and other nasal rinsing devices.
Officials also renewed their warning that extremely rare, but potentially deadly, consequences can come from flushing nasal passages with common tap water.
“We published this study because we want people to be aware of this risk,” said the CDC’s Dr. Julia Haston.
Neti pots are one of the better known tools of nasal rinsing. Users fill them with a saline solution, then pour the liquid in one nostril. It comes out the other, draining the nasal passage of allergens and other bothersome contaminants.
Neti pot use in the U.S. has boomed in the past few decades, driven in part by the increasing prevalence of allergies and other respiratory diseases, market researchers say.
Tap water in the U.S. is treated to meet safe drinking standards, but low levels of microscopic organisms can still be found in it. It’s usually not a problem when people drink or cook with the water, but it can pose a danger when tap water is used for humidifiers or nasal irrigation.
The CDC recommends using boiled, sterile or distilled water. If tap water is used, it must be boiled for at least one minute — or three minutes at higher elevations — before it is used, officials say.
More than a decade ago, health officials linked U.S. deaths from a brain-eating amoeba — Naegleria fowleri — to nasal rinsing. More recently, they started to note nasal rinsing as a common theme in illnesses caused by another microscopic parasite, Acanthamoeba. Acanthamoeba has an 85% fatality rate in reported cases.
The report was published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The new study looked at 10 patients who fell ill between 1994 and 2022, three of whom died. Researchers say they can’t be sure how they were infected, but they noted similarities: All had weakened immune systems and practiced nasal rinsing.