One of the more effective blisterings that I got from my Dad was for the time that my two paternal cousins and yours truly decided to cool off on a hot summer’s day by taking a dip in the deeper section of our 5 acre lake. Aside from stepping down into rancid muck almost knee deep on the bottom, and the water having about 2 inches of visibility due to alge, silt and funk, it was refreshing. That we came out smelling like dead fish and rotted leaves didn’t phase us at all, however we weren’t terribly successful at getting all that “incriminating evidence” hosed off before going inside and being found out. I don’t think that our parents knew anything about Naegleria, they just knew that is was not very bright to swim in nasty water. I thought about these things Sat. morning when I read this short piece in the LA Times.

Two children died after being infected with a rare parasite associated with swimming in stagnant water, health officials said in Tulsa.

The boys, 9 and 7, did not know each other but were both believed to have been swimming in area ponds before contracting Naegleria, an amoeba that enters the body through the nose and can cause a deadly inflammation of the brain.

Three city pools were closed for testing, although health officials doubted the boys contracted the disease there.

Dennis Prager had a segment on his show this AM on “luck” and its perceived role in life, from the perspective of a religious person. Certainly was bad luck for these two boys to contact this parasite, just because they wanted a little relief from the heat. Pray for their families.

Greta at Elephant In My Coffee has a link to further updates. (db)

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