LOS ANGELES - A seven-year-old boy in US state of California died after he contracted a brain-eating amoeba likely while swimming in a lake in Northern California, local media reported earlier this week
According to the Los Angeles Times, David Pruitt, living in Tehama County, died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare, devastating infection of the brain. The boy, infected after swimming in a freshwater lake last month, was sent to UC Davis Medical Center on July 30 and died there on Aug. 7.
PAM is caused by Naegleria fowleri, also known as a brain-eating amoeba, which is found in warm freshwater and soil.
"People get infected when water containing the amoeba goes up the nose forcefully," the Tehama County Health Services Agency wrote in a news release early this month. "From the nose, the amoeba can sometimes migrate to the brain and destroy brain tissue."
In the initial stage of infection, symptoms can include a severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As the infection worsens, symptoms, which appear one to nine days after exposure to the amoeba, can further develop into a stiff neck, seizures or hallucinations.
Because of the extremely low occurrence of PAM, and how rapidly the infection progresses, the parasite can be difficult to detect, the CDC website noted, adding no method currently existed that could accurately measure the amount of amoebae in water.
There have been only 10 cases of PAM reported in California since 1971, according to the Tehama County Health Services Agency, which recommend that anyone who had nasal exposure to warm freshwater in the last 10 days and developed symptoms should consult a doctor immediately.
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