The gist In the US, a child died after bathing in a river. The young victim was killed by a brain-eating amoeba.
It’s a rare but horrifying case that shook Nebraska just days ago. In the United States, a child – whose age is unknown – died just days after bathing in the Elkhorn River in Douglas County. According to the latest information from the authorities after the autopsy of the young victim, he was killed by a brain-eating amoeba (a unicellular organism).
The victim was bathing in this stream on August 8th. Five days later, the child showed the first symptoms: headache, fever, sore throat… Finally, last week, he died as a result of primary amebic meningoencephalitis.
95% mortality rate
It is an amoeba, a particularly dangerous organism, that is the origin of this disease. Also known as “Naegleria fowleri”, this protozoan does not survive in seawater and is mainly found in freshwater.
However, if human infection remains extremely rare, it is very dangerous. Humans can become infected if water containing this amoeba gets up their noses. The protozoa then migrate along the olfactory nerve to the brain. This then literally eats the brain of its host by “phagocytizing” the nerve cells. In the United States, 144 deaths out of nearly 148 cases of infection were recorded between 1962 and 2019.