Tiny Amoeba Can Eat Your Brain (Infographic)

Infographic: How a tiny amoeba can eat your brain.

It lives in warm waters and can swim up your nose to your brain, but fortunately infections are rare. (Image credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)

Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba that lives in warm, fresh waters. It can enter the nose and pass through the sinus membranes into the olfactory bulb, reproduces by fission and spreads throughout the brain. The amoeba consumes brain tissue, causes swelling of the brain and finally death.

There are three stages in the amoeba’s life cycle: cyst, trophozoite and a flagellated form. The trophozoite is the infectious form.

Karl has been Purch's infographics specialist across all editorial properties since 2010. Before joining Purch, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web. He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University.