Tiny organisms to avoid this summer in lakes and the ocean: the brain-eating amoeba and flesh-eating bacteria

With temperatures warming up, many people flock to area lakes and the ocean to beat the heat, but in these bodies of water lie potentially dangerous microorganisms – brain-eating amoebas and flesh-eating bacteria.

Last month, a Florida Atlantic University study found flesh-eating bacteria living on a blob of microplastics and seaweed in the Atlantic Ocean double the width of the U.S. They can enter the body through open wounds and cause intestinal distress and could even result in a life-threatening condition that kills muscles, nerves and flesh and eventually causes sepsis and death, which is a reminder to avoid seaweed while in saltwater.

“Are you going to stop going to the ocean in the summer? Probably not. But if you have an open wound, try to avoid the water,” Dr. Jose Alexander, clinical microbiologist and director of microbiology, virology and immunology at AdventHealth Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel. “Maybe avoid [being] close to that seaweed, not only for the Vibrio [bacteria], but who knows what else can be in that seaweed.”

In freshwater lurks another life-threatening organism to avoid – the brain-eating amoeba. They can enter through the nose and kill its host with 3-7 days.

Alexander and his team recently developed a test that speeds up diagnoses to 3-5 hours, compared to traditional tests which routinely take six days.

The AdventHealth microbiology team innovated by repurposing tests used for certain viruses to develop a test used to detect brain-eating amoebas. That test debuted in fall 2022.