Brain-eating Amoebas Blamed in Three Deaths (756 hits)
(CNN) -- It's eerie but it's true: Three people have died this summer after suffering rare infections from a waterborne amoeba that destroys the brain. This is the time of year when there is an uptick in cases. The amoebas flourish in the heat -- especially during the summer months in the South, thriving in warm waters where people swim."These are rare infections, but super tragic for families," said Jonathan Yoder, the waterborne disease and outbreak surveillance coordinator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We don't want to minimize how hard it is for families."
The amoeba, called Naegleria fowleri, is the only type that infects humans and is more than 95% lethal. The first death in 2011 occurred in June in Louisiana, according to the CDC. A 16-year-old died Saturday after becoming infected by an amoeba in Brevard County, Florida, according to CNN's affiliate WFTV. The amoeba could have entered the teen's body as the teen swam in a nearby river.
Her mother, P.J. Nash-Ryder, said her daughter complained of a headache, threw up 20 times and ran a fever as high as 104 degrees. "She would sit up in bed and just look at me, and I would ask her what was wrong," Nash-Ryder said. "She would say, 'I don't know.' And I'd tell her to lay back down. Her eyes were rolling ... and she wouldn't shut them all the way." A spinal tap showed that Naegleria fowleri was present in her spinal fluids.
Amoeba infections in humans are extremely rare. The CDC found 32 reported cases in 10 years -- compared with 36,000 drowning deaths from 1996 to 2005. Rare but deadly amoeba infection hard to prevent
