[Geysers] FW: [ML] PAM -

[Randall Williams]

Gazers,

Slightly off topic, but I'm forwarding this, with permission to do so, from
another list server. I was wondering if anyone could provide him with any
information about the mentioned disease. Feel free to contact me directly or
to contact Mike directly. If you post to the geyser list I'd like to be able
to forward the information to Mike.

Thanks,

Randy Williams

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From: "J. Mike Long" <labmgr at gmc.org>
Reply-To: MEDLAB-L <MEDLAB-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU>, "J. Mike Long"
<labmgr at gmc.org>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 13:30:08 -0600
To: MEDLAB-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: [ML] PAM -

Group - 

I'm working with an MD who's doing research at Montana State University. He
needs some help. 

Here's the background:  When one swims at the Boiling River and the Gardiner
River in northern Yellowstone Park one notices signs warning of the possible
presence of Naegleria fowlerii and the consequent possibility of contracting
primary amebic meningoencephalitis from contact with the water.  Sounds
scary doesn't it? By the way, the Boiling river is - boiling that is and
when it flows into the Gardiner River, cascading over the rocks in a hot
water fall, there are spots of hot-tub heaven formed underneath.

Well, his research has to do with bacteria setting up light housekeeping in
free-living amebae which consequently allowed them to do so inside other,
higher, cells which led to eukaryotic organisms with organelles in their
cells. He's pulling bacterial DNA out of Nymph Creek in Yellowstone, (pH 2.7
and I am NOT makin that up) - bacteria that can not live in that pH. The
theory is that they're "hiding" in side of ameba.

Anyway, he can not, however, find a documented case of primary amebic
meningoencephalitis (PAM) being contracted in Yellowstone Park. He's talked
to Montana and Wyoming epidemiologists and the Centers for Disease Control.
I personally wonder if this could be some sophisticated ploy to keep people
from skinny dipping in the hot springs, but that's just a personal thought.

Anyway, has anyone ever heard of a case of PAM which could be traced to hot
potting in Yellowstone National Park?

I've hot potted all of my life, from high school through college and now
with my son, with nary a bad outcome other than goosebumps when it's -10 F,
however alcohol does tend to ameliorate that indignity, or at least it did
back in the days of my ill-spent youth.

Mike Long
Glendive Medical Center
Glendive Montana 59330
labmgr at gmc.org
406-345-3371