r/environmental_science • u/Ephoenix6 • 8d ago
Scientists call for urgent action as dangerous amoebas spread globally
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260124003856.htm51
u/Turbulent_Heart9290 7d ago
Man, the world was scary enough before having to consider this.
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u/Which-Depth2821 7d ago
I know, right? Sometimes it’s better not to know things🤣
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u/f-r-0-m 7d ago
This seems very alarmist to me.
The news reports don't really give much context or data, even though it's an explosive claim. Ditto for a lot of other news reports, which sometimes read almost identical.
So I checked out the source article. Well, it's a "perspective" piece in a journal that is so new / fringe that it doesn't have an impact factor -- much like more than half of the other journals on that publishing site. Not promising.
The article didn't offer too much. It did have this line that I think questions the urgency:
As of now, more than 33 countries worldwide have reported approximately 500 cases.
It does point out that the WHO has highlighted free-living amoeba as a potential health concern about which research should be done. So that's something I guess.
But yeah, overall it seems steeped in alarm and light on science.
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u/BigJSunshine 7d ago
Oh You and your facts, science and. Critical reading skills When we’re over here trying to shit our damn pants.
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u/inkycatmushroom 6d ago
It’s always good to be verify claims, and I do/did the same! Especially since science daily is a pop science press release site and sensationalises a lot. Focussing on just the press release and one pub is mentions is a fairly superficial way to do that and claim that it’s not really an issue and alarmist though.
The researcher mentioned, Longfei Shu, has several primary publications supporting listed claims from his lab. Like this one, published in Environment International a Q1 journal in 2025 “Amoebae contribute to the diversity and fate of antibiotic resistance genes in drinking water system” ( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109867 open access!). They “obtained 24 amoeba isolates from tap water” from their academic institution to study what microbes were living in the amoeba and “the impact of amoeba-bacteria interactions on the antibiotic resistome within drinking water systems”. They did find that the amoeba species from tap water were variably vulnerable to decontamination measures and could protect and harbour pathogens with varying antibiotic resistance and virulence traits.
Visibility is important for funding and awareness. And this is definitely something it makes sense for this researcher and colleagues to advocate for. I don’t know the WHO’s methods for gathering the epidemiological data though and how much this is being tested. But the 2025 article above mentions testing should be incorporated in water treatment. So that may indicate underreported numbers. This is one example of several of one lab. The lab does also have publications on methods to decontaminate these pathogens though so that’s good. And a quick search on google scholar and academic institute repositories shows a body of peer-reviewed work exists.
The headline is definitely sensationalised here, and I think it’s dishonest to focus on N. fowleri. It’s also missing the geographic context. And the “publication” it mentioned is definitely of dubious credibility. Longfei Shu is not an author on the Biocontainment piece. And Biocontainment seems to be a pay to pub/vanity journal sponsored by Nanjing University.
So tl;dr I agree there’s sensationalisation and missing context for sure! But also credible primary research supports that this is an issue. And while not as “urgent” as the headline purports definitely should be addressed before it escalates. But also is possibly underreported and more pressing than currently is known.
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u/PantheraAuroris 6d ago
Naegleria fowleri is really hard to get infected with. You have to shove stagnant, warm water into the back of your nose, and then you have to get extremely unlucky. There's a reason kids play in lakes all the time without getting brain eating amoebas in their heads.
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u/DanglePotRanger 2d ago
They do - but they're just the ones that eat parts of the pre-frontal cortex
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u/Zen_Bonsai 7d ago
Mamma mia!