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Where I grew up (Darwin, Australia), gardening can kill you with a flesh-eating bacteria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melioidosis

Luckily, it's treatable with very high doses of antibiotics. It mostly kills the already infirm or elderly.

Swimming in a lake here in Florida can kill you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri

Personally, I prefer springs and oceans. So not too worried about that. Lakes around here are murky and full of gators any way.

Oh that disease due to a kind of Amoeba (Naegleria) is very bad because it actually almost always leads to death (post to meningo-encephalitis). 97-99% mortality unlike coccidioidomycosis (which is a little hyped in the article).

They tried Amphotericin B in some case with limited success but the disease is always fatal :(

On the plus side, it's extremely rare. About three cases a year in the U.S. on average.

Darwin wins again -- Saltwater crocodiles are bigger than alligators :D

A similar virus killed Steve Frasier, founder of Internet Mortgage Exchange (IMX), who also contracted it gardening at his home in Walnut Creek.

He had a fever and complained of pain in his arms for a week before going to see a doctor, but by then there was little they code do as the bacteria had spread to his heart.

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