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PHOENIX - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die. Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future. "This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water...

MINERAL -- Federal officials are urging public involvement once Dominion Virginia Power applies for a license to build a third reactor at its North Anna Power Station in Louisa County. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting in Mineral on Wednesday night to explain how it will review the application, expected next month.

PHOENIX -- A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain. Aaron Evans died Sept. 17 of Naegleria fowleri, an organism doctors said he probably picked up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu. According to the Centers For Disease Control, Naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials said they've noticed a spike in cases, with six Naegleria-related cases so far -- all of them...

It seemed like a headache, nothing more. But when pain killers and a trip to the emergency room didn't fix Aaron Evans, the 14-year-old asked his dad if he was going to die. "No, no," David Evans remembers saying. "We didn't know. And here I am: I come home and I'm burying him." What was bothering Aaron was an amoeba, a microscopic organism called Naegleria fowleri that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain. The doctors said he probably picked it up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake...

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Two children died Friday after being infected with a parasite associated with swimming in stagnant water, health officials said. The children, aged 9 and 7, died after being infected with Naegleria, an amoeba that lives in warm water and can cause a deadly inflammation of the brain, the Tulsa Health Department said. The boys, who live in the Tulsa area, came to doctors with symptoms of fever, hallucinations and headaches, health department spokesman Melanie Christian said. The boys did not know each other and appear to have contracted the disease independently. The 9-year-old died Friday morning. The 7-year-old succumbed about...