Eric Altneu, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, spoke with the Washington Post about the free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which is found around the world in soil and warm fresh water. The amoeba is harmless if swallowed but dangerous if it gets into a person’s nasal passages, where it can make its way to the frontal part of the brain and a fast-acting infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), develops. Only four people who have developed PAM have made a full recovery.