A young boy may have died from a brain eating amoeba after he swam in Lake Mead.
The amoeba is called Naegleria fowleri. The boy was from Clark County, Nevada.
The Southern Nevada Health District investigated the death of the boy under the age of 18. They found he was exposed to the amoeba at Lake Mead.
This happened on the Arizona side at the beginning of October. He started showing symptoms a week later.
What is the brain eating amoeba that killed the young boy?
According to My Twin Tiers, the amoeba can be found in bodies of specific water. This includes warm freshwater lakes, rivers, and hot springs.
The amoeba enters the body through the nose and makes its way up to the brain. It cannot kill people from them swallowing it and it cannot spread between people.
The infection is incredibly rare, but always fatal.
The CDC was able to determine it was the amoeba that killed the boy.
The amoeba will cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis, also known as PAM. This causes headache, fever, nausea or vomiting, and becomes a stiff neck, seizures, and coma that could lead to death.
To avoid the amoeba, the CDC suggests not jumping or diving into bodies of warm water, especially in summer. You should hold your nose shut, use nose clips, or keep your head above water while swimming in bodies of fresh water. Don’t put your head below the water in hot springs or other untreated geothermal waters. Finally, don’t dig into or stir the sediment in shallow areas of freshwater.
The amoeba occurs naturally so there are no tests done to monitor it.
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