Brain-Eating Amoeba From Tap Water Kills Five-year-old

A Louisiana boy was the first confirmed case of a patient of a "deadly brain-eating amoeba" called 'Naegleria fowleri' through tap water. Earlier victims too contracted the infection after swimming in warm, freshwater banks, according to rt.com.

The journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published the case of the five-year-old boy who got infected after accidentally imbibing tap water. After a fortnight, he died from the primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) infection.

Naegleria fowleri, or the brain-eating amoeba, enters the body through the nose. It then penetrates the bone between the sinuses and the brain beginning an infection and breaking down nerve cells. It leads to a swelling of the brain and introduces PAM, which can be deadly. PAM kills eight people every year in the US, mostly men with a median age of 12.

The water scare in Louisiana and Tulsa has been happening for the past two years. "Imagine being told, by your water provider, to be careful how you use your water because it could kill you," according to newson6.com. It's a frequent occurrence in Louisiana after the regulators detected a deadly amoeba coming out of taps in people's homes.

Louisiana resident, Kevin Vancamp said, "I get a call from the City saying, "We found amoeba in the water. Don't get the water up your nose." I just took a shower. So now I'm like "oh my goodness," you know?"

People in three Louisiana parishes have been put on alert in the last year after the brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria was found in their tap water.

In July 2013, the five-year-old was hospitalized after he contracted a 104-degree Fahrenheit (40° C) fever and got a disastrous headache, along with vomiting. Later, doctors recorded that there were some short "staring episodes," with the boy staring straight ahead without responding.

However, even after several tests and antibiotics, he could not be diagnosed. Ultimately, he developed seizures and was declared brain dead. His family removed the life support just within five days of hospitalization into New Orleans hospital, according to Newsweek.

The boy was the first to have contracted the illness due to tap water rather than freshwater, according to Jennifer Cope, a medical epidemiologist for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Other instances in Louisiana probably due to Hurricane Katrina's impact, have also been perpetrated. Neti pots, or nasal rinses, are linked with the microorganism too.

Testing the cause of the disease and introducing higher levels of chlorine are steps being taken. The CDC uses miltefosine, a drug to fight PAM, though it is not commercially accessible.

How did N.Fowleri become so rife?

"This is a free-living amoeba that doesn't have to infect anybody, it's perfectly happy feeding on bacteria," Francine Marciano-Cabral, a microbiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University who is studying the microorganism, said to Newsweek. "What we want to find out is why in some people is it so pathogenic and deadly and what makes it that way?"