WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:01.150 --> 00:00:02.640 It is very early in the morning 2 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.970 and the air is very cold here at Kerosene Creek, 3 00:00:05.970 --> 00:00:09.520 a natural hot spring near Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand. 4 00:00:09.520 --> 00:00:12.020 It's a natural swimming pool and waterfall 5 00:00:12.020 --> 00:00:14.880 at a warm and comfortable bathing temperature year-round 6 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.780 because of the geothermal activity that's around here. 7 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:20.190 There is also a questionable smell in the air, 8 00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:23.060 but fortunately that doesn't really come across on camera. 9 00:00:23.060 --> 00:00:25.290 This place is not the local secret that it used to be. 10 00:00:25.290 --> 00:00:28.630 Tourists flock here now, which is why I'm filming here so early. 11 00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:31.800 I didn't really want to turn up to a swimming pool full of people 12 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:33.600 and awkwardly point a camera at them. 13 00:00:33.610 --> 00:00:37.530 But there's one view that I can show you that the tourists won't get to see 14 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:38.490 because there's a rule here 15 00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:41.410 that the government warnings are very clear about: 16 00:00:41.410 --> 00:00:44.260 keep your head above water. 17 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:48.220 - The brain-eating amoeba can be found in hot pools and things like that. 18 00:00:48.220 --> 00:00:50.340 So these organisms enter the nose 19 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:53.600 if you put your head under or you snort the water in. 20 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.750 They can then go from the nose through the olfactory nerves to the brain. 21 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:02.100 And then once in the brain they start to eat the neurons and astrocytes. 22 00:01:02.100 --> 00:01:04.080 And they cause massive inflammation. 23 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.910 And then you get this horrible amoeboid disease. 24 00:01:07.910 --> 00:01:12.300 It starts sometimes with a change in your sense of smell, sense of taste. 25 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:14.840 And then that can progress to headaches, 26 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:19.900 vomiting, fever, and then ultimately to seizures and death. 27 00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:23.100 There are potentially a couple of drugs that are used, 28 00:01:23.100 --> 00:01:25.320 one of which is not licenced for use, 29 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:27.000 and is actually very difficult to get hold of. 30 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.030 So in general there is no treatment, 31 00:01:29.030 --> 00:01:31.390 and 97% of people die. 32 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:33.250 - Brain-eating amoeba aren't unique to here 33 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:34.460 or even to New Zealand. 34 00:01:34.460 --> 00:01:37.640 They're common anywhere that there's warm, untreated water. 35 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:41.000 There was even a fatal case at Disney World in Florida in 1980, 36 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.650 back when they had a water park built into a lake. 37 00:01:43.650 --> 00:01:45.950 And there are more odd cases too. 38 00:01:45.950 --> 00:01:48.790 - When you've got a cold and you're really bunged up 39 00:01:48.790 --> 00:01:51.360 in your sinuses, you can flush them out. 40 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:54.300 It's really important, if you're going to shove water up your nose, 41 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:56.640 because of the fact that there is this amazing-- 42 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:59.100 these many nerves connecting your nose to your brain, 43 00:01:59.100 --> 00:02:02.650 that you use only boiled water. 44 00:02:02.650 --> 00:02:04.110 And so there have been cases of people 45 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:07.330 who've used neti pots just taking tap water. 46 00:02:07.330 --> 00:02:10.360 And, ugh! They... 47 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:13.240 Brain-eating amoeba is not the only infection people have had. 48 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:14.400 There are other things, 49 00:02:14.403 --> 00:02:16.600 but that is one potential thing people can get. 50 00:02:16.600 --> 00:02:19.150 - But despite the terrifying name, the grisly stories, 51 00:02:19.150 --> 00:02:22.580 and the 90-something percent chance of death if you're infected, 52 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:24.960 infection is really rare. 53 00:02:24.970 --> 00:02:27.490 How much of that is down to the government warnings though? 54 00:02:27.490 --> 00:02:30.790 Well, probably best not to have a control group for that experiment. 55 00:02:30.790 --> 00:02:35.440 Although, that said, the warning signs that were once here aren't here any more. 56 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:36.800 - So what are the odds of it happening? 57 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:38.750 They're very, very, very rare. 58 00:02:38.750 --> 00:02:41.790 The last case we had in New Zealand was, I think, in 2000. 59 00:02:41.790 --> 00:02:45.610 But I guess the point is when it does happen, it's pretty catastrophic. 60 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:47.470 There will be things that we're doing in our daily lives 61 00:02:47.470 --> 00:02:50.210 that are way more dangerous than this, 62 00:02:50.210 --> 00:02:52.460 even from a microbial point of view. 63 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:54.990 We are covered in microbes, 64 00:02:54.990 --> 00:03:00.640 we have really nasty microbes living in us and on us on a daily basis, 65 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:02.750 and most of the time it's okay. 66 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:05.120 Maybe one in three, one in four people 67 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.590 will have staph aureus living up their nose. 68 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:09.280 Pretty fine up there, but if you get that 69 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.010 in your bloodstream you can end up with horrible infection. 70 00:03:12.010 --> 00:03:14.490 You're more at risk, frankly, from shoving your finger 71 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:17.180 up your nose and then touching a cut accidentally 72 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:21.460 than you are from having your brain eaten by amoeba. 73 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:23.570 - Thanks to Dr. Wiles at the University of Auckland 74 00:03:23.570 --> 00:03:25.550 for all her expertise. Pull down the description 75 00:03:25.550 --> 00:03:27.750 for the references she used in her research.