The Houston area can be polluted by water brain-eating microorganisms

Lake Jackson, Texas – Texas officials have warned residents in some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it could be contaminated with brain-eating microorganisms.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Presbyterian Water Authority late Friday that its water supply could be contaminated by the bacterium Foliar.

Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Frasoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute and Rosenberg, as well as Dow Chemical-Freeport and Clemens and Wayne Scott state prison units.

This advice will remain in place until the water system of the Preschosport Authority is thoroughly cleaned and tests on water samples show that the system’s water is safe to reuse. It said inside A statement It is unclear how long it will take for tap water to be safe again.

The water source of the Prasosport Water Authority is the Prasos River.

Nuclear foliar is a free-living micro-amoeba, or single-celled organism commonly found in warm-water freshwater and soil According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It usually affects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, causing a rare and debilitating disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis from where it travels to the brain.

Infection is generally dangerous and occurs when people go swimming or diving in hot freshwater areas such as lakes and rivers. In very rare cases, bacterial infections can also occur when contaminated water (such as insufficiently chlorinated swimming pool water or hot and contaminated tap water) from other sources enters the nose.