On resident out of Missouri who chose to take a dip in an Iowa lake has been found to be infected by a rare and very lethal brain-eating amoeba, reported state health officials.
The currently still unidentified patient, who is in the hospital in Missouri, took a swim in the Lake of Three Fires State Park and ended up infected with Naegleria fowleri, an infection that is so rare in humans that there have only been a total of 154 known infections throughout the U.S. from 1962 to 2019, reported officials at the CDC. Of that number of reported infected, there has only been known to be a grand total of four survivors.
“It’s strongly believed by public health experts that the lake is a likely source, but we are not limiting the investigation to that source and it’s not confirmed,” explained the spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Lisa Cox, to the Des Moines register. “Additional public water sources in Missouri are being tested as well.”
Beach closed after brain-eating amoeba confirmed https://t.co/VC2v1ZCXKb
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Local authorities think that the swimmer, who is currently stuck in intensive care, was most likely exposed to the amoeba from the lake in Iowa within the last two weeks of June, though they failed to give any specific dates for it.
Naegleria fowleri is most often found within warm freshwaters, such as lakes, ponds, and rivers. It can “cause a rare, life-threatening infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis,” explained officials with Missouri health in a recent news release.
Humans are normally infected when water that is infested with the amoeba enters through the nose, usually as a result of swimming or driving into rivers and lakes. Once the infection has made its way into the body, the amoeba swarm makes its way to the brain, where it starts to consume and attack the tissue. Symptoms of an infection include fever, stiff neck, vomiting, seizures, severe headache, altered mental status, and hallucinations, as reported by the Missouri Department of Health and Human Senior Services.
The agency recommends making use of nose plugs while swimming through fresh water, not dunking your head in “hot springs and other untreated thermal waters” and not taking part in “water-related activities in warm freshwater during periods of high-water temperature.”
Back in May, one man from Pakistan died and another ended up very ill after they became infected with the brain-eating amoeba.
The infection is not able to spread from person to person and cannot anyone who just drinks contaminated water, reported health officials.