A patient in a South Carolina children’s hospital has died of a brain-eating amoeba, according to the facility.
In a news briefing Tuesday, Prisma Health Children’s Hospital-Midlands confirmed the patient died of primary amebic meningoencephalitis, also known as PAM, a rare but often fatal brain infection caused by the Naegleria fowleri organism.
The hospital did not share any more details about the patient.
According to the South Carolina Department of Public Health, the patient’s exposure likely occurred at Lake Murray, though officials said they cannot be completely certain. The department said this is the first known case in the state since 2016.
In the briefing, Dr. Anna-Kathryn Burch, a pediatric infectious disease physician at the hospital, said these infections are “very devastating,” with the vast majority of cases in the United States ending in death.
“Greater than 97% of cases that have occurred since the ’60s have been fatal,” she said.
Burch explained the infections occur when forceful water gets up the nose and is able to cross into the brain. This can happen during recreational water activities in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs, where the amoeba thrives.
To reduce your risk, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests holding your nose or wearing a nose clip if you are jumping or diving into freshwater or keeping your head above water in hot springs.
You cannot get a Naegleria fowleri infection from swallowing contaminated water or from someone else who is infected.
This isn’t the first death caused by Naegleria fowleri in the U.S. this year.
A Texas woman died from an infection caused by the brain-eating amoeba after using tap water from her RV in a nasal irrigation device, health officials reported in May.
The previously healthy 71-year-old developed severe symptoms, including fever, headache and altered mental status, within four days after the nasal irrigation rinse, the CDC case report said. Despite medical treatment for a suspected PAM infection, she developed seizures and died eight days after the symptoms began.
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