Tiny Amoeba Can Eat Your Brain (Infographic)

Infographics
By published
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 Tate
Karl Tate
LiveScience Infographic Artist
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.
More about mind

Colors are universal — even if our perception of them is subjective

Scientists hijacked the human eye to get it to see a brand-new color. It's called 'olo.'

Catquistadors: Oldest known domestic cats in the US died off Florida coast in a 1559 Spanish shipwreck

See more latest