Rare But Fatal

A 14-year-old died days before starting high school after encountering a brain-eating amoeba.

What is it?
The technical term for the brain-eating amoeba is Naegleria fowleri. It’s a single-celled organism that can cause a brain infection.

Where does it live?
It’s typically found in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers and hot springs.

How do you get it?
People can get infected by swimming or diving into infected, warm bodies of water. The amoeba enters the nose and travels to the brain. Pool swimmers can also get infected in water that isn’t properly chlorinated, but that’s extremely rare.

How often does this happen?

Very rarely, but when it does occur it’s very often fatal. In the past 53 years, there have been 133 cases of Naegleria fowleri infections. Of those cases, only 3 people survived. Most of the cases happened in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Arizona and California.

Who else has been infected?

• An Oklahoma man died in early August after swimming in Ardmore’s Lake Murray.
• Last summer, a 9-year-old boy from Kansas died after swimming in several bodies of fresh water.
• In 2013, a 2-year-old in Florida died after he went knee boarding in fresh water near his home.

Can you prevent it?
Because these infections are random and extremely rare, it’s hard to predict where they might occur. Here are a few suggestions of what you could do:

• Health departments advise swimmers to use nose plugs when swimming in fresh water.
• Don’t stir up the sediment at the bottom of shallow freshwater areas.
• Keep your head above water in hot springs.
• Don’t swim in motionless water, water that’s cloudy and green, or water that has a foul odor.
• Signs that say “no swimming” should be taken seriously.

Staff Reporter Shianna Evans