Discover Magazine reports that in a dormant state, the amoeba is resilient — able to survive extreme conditions in the host body  — but not yet deadly. However, if the parasite senses the host’s habitat is ideal, it will then grow a special brain-sucking mechanism and begin its nasty work, drudging itself deep into the victims’ olfactory bulbs and multiplying as it moves through tissue in the brain.

The victim will experience symptoms that are strikingly similar to those of the most recent strand of COVID-19. These include a loss of taste and smell among other flu-like symptoms. As the amoeba progresses, WebMD reports that its victim will eventually experience blurred vision, mind-bending hallucinations, seizures, and vomiting, before finally entering a comatose state. This series of events almost always ends in death. In the United States, only four of N. fowleri’s victims survived, and at least one survivor incurred irreversible brain damage (via CNN Health).