Swimmer who contracted brain-eating amoeba from lake dies... as experts worry of spread
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The Missouri patient who contracted an infection from a brain-eating amoeba has died, local officials confirmed.
The patient passed away Tuesday at a hospital in the St. Louis, Missouri area, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The adult Missouri resident, whose personal information has not been released, had been waterskiing at a popular recreational spot in the Ozark Mountains before becoming sick with symptoms related to a Naegleria fowleri infection.
The brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, is typically fatal, causing a devastating brain infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).
It enters through the nose and travels to the brain via the olfactory nerve, triggering severe inflammation. Initial symptoms like a severe headache, fever, and vomiting can progress rapidly to death within about five days.
While almost always lethal, there have been a few rare survivors. Among 164 people known to have been infected in the US from 1962 to 2023, only six have survived.
The health department said in the Aug 13 announcement of the local infection: ‘Recreational water users should assume that Naegleria fowleri is present in warm freshwater across the United States; however, infection remains very rare.’
The microbe is naturally abundant worldwide in soil and warm freshwater, as well as in man-made environments where water is warm and untreated, such as hot springs or under-chlorinated pools.
Caleb Ziegelbauer, then 13, became one of the few known survivors of an N. fowleri infection in the S after swimming in a Florida beach in July 2022
An infection with the brain-eating amoeba, N. fowleri, typically begins when contaminated water is forced into the nose. From there, the amoeba can enter the nasal cavity, penetrate the lining, and travel to the brain.
Once in the brain, it attacks the tissue of the frontal lobe, which is primarily responsible for executive functions, including decision making, problem solving, and judgment.
‘Symptoms get worse pretty rapidly and most people actually pass away within about five days,’ Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Epidemiologist Nathan Koffarnus previously told the local NBC affiliate station.
The last time an N. fowleri infection was confirmed in Missouri was in 2022. The only other confirmed case in the state was in 1987.
With a fatality rate of roughly 97 percent, CDC experts say survival is rare. Early detection is key to improving outcomes, but the infection is often misdiagnosed until it is too late for treatment.
There is no guaranteed cure, and the infection progresses rapidly. Treatment involves an immediate, multi-drug strategy consisting of anti-fungals and anti-parasitic medications aimed at killing the amoeba and reducing the severe brain swelling it causes.
The CDC has identified young boys to be at the highest risk of contracting the deadly amoeba.
‘The reasons for this aren't clear,’ the agency said. ‘It's possible that young boys are more likely to participate in activities like diving into the water and playing in the sediment at the bottom of lakes and rivers.’
Kali Hardig, 25, survived her infection with the brain-eating amoeba from a decade ago. A decade later, she has made a near-full recovery, relearning how to walk, talk, and swim
Ms Hardig said she was like a 'brand-new baby' after the infection and had to relearn everything including how to walk, talk, read and write
Caleb Ziegelbauer, then 13, became one of the few known survivors of an N. fowleri infection after swimming in a Florida beach in July 2022.
The brain-eating amoeba left him paralyzed and unable to speak for five months, communicating only with his eyebrows.
After a long and challenging recovery, the teenager made remarkable progress. He can now stand, laugh, form words, and express himself.
Kali Hardig, now 25, is another survivor from Arkansas.
At just 12 years old, she contracted the deadly brain-eating amoeba, believed to be from a local water park. Doctors gave her days to live.
Defying the odds, she survived after an aggressive treatment that included an experimental drug.
A decade later, she has made a near-full recovery, relearning how to walk, talk, and swim. The primary lasting effect is occasional blurry vision in her left eye due to scar tissue.
N. fowleri thrives in warm freshwater lakes and rivers, geothermal hot springs, and soil.
And while infections are overall rare, public health officials and epidemiologists have warned for years that one of the lasting effects of climate change will be more hospitable places for threatening pathogens like N. fowleri to take root and infect people.
CDC scientists reported in 2023 that as summers get hotter and heatwaves last longer in northern states, the water in lakes and rivers gets warm enough for the amoeba to thrive.
Major flooding from hurricanes and storms might also be increasing the risk. Floods can wash the amoeba from the soil into wells and water systems, contaminating them.
Tracking has shown that the pathogen has slowly shifted its home environment from southern states and the Southwest northward.
In the past, almost all infections happened in southern states such as Florida and Texas. But since 2010, people have gotten sick after swimming in freshwater in more northern states like Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Maryland.
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