A 10-year-old Texas girl has died due to Naegleria fowleri, also known as brain-eating amoeba. Although it’s uncertain where she contracted the amoeba, she reportedly went swimming in a river near her home not long before falling ill.
Lily Mae Avant started feeling ill Sunday, Sept. 8. Her doctors thought it was just a virus, but when she became confused and unresponsive, her family whisked her to an emergency room.
Infections happen only when water containing the amoeba gets into the body through the nose. The amoeba can travel from the nose up to the brain, where it destroys tissue. Drinking contaminated water won’t cause an infection, and it can’t be passed from one person to another. When infections do happen, they’re very deadly: Since 1962, just four people have survived. “Since it’s so rare, we don’t know why a few people get sick while millions who swim in natural bodies of water don't,” Chris Van Deusen, of the Texas Department of State Health Services, says in a statement. “Because the organism is common in lakes and rivers, we don't recommend people specifically avoid bodies of water where someone has contracted the illness.
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