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Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, several communities in Texas are under a “do not use water” advisory due to fears that a brain-eating amoeba could be in their tap water. According to the CDC, the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, is most commonly found in warm freshwater systems such as lakes, rivers and hot springs in warmer parts of the U.S. People often get infected by swimming in these areas, but the CDC lists “contaminated tap water” and “inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water” as “very rare instances.” The amoeba infects people by entering the body through the nose...

Public officials are in the process of eliminating Naegleria Fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba that thrives in warm water, from another drinking water supply in Louisiana. Naegleria Fowleri was detected during routine tests on Aug. 5 at a utility district in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, roughly 80 miles from New Orleans... According to the local fire department, the Schriever Water System serves approximately 97,000 residents in the Houma area. .. While officials say the water is safe for drinking, residents are urged to use caution with the water, not letting it get into their nose. Humans are infected when water containing the...

Public officials are in the process of eliminating Naegleria Fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, from two drinking water supplies in Louisiana. Naegleria Fowleri was detected during routine tests last week at a utility district in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, roughly 25 miles from Baton Rouge. The water system serves roughly 1,800 throughout the rural town. Three other systems in the area were tested with negative results, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). While officials say the water is safe for drinking, residents are urged to use caution with the water, not letting it get into their nose. Humans...

<p>STILLWATER, Minn. – Health officials have closed Lily Lake to swimmers until further notice while the Minnesota Department of Health investigates the death of a boy who appears to have died from a rare form of meningitis caused by an amoeba found in warm freshwater.</p>

A Kansas resident died this week from what was likely a rare infection by a brain-eating amoeba - the fourth such case in the U.S. this year. State and local officials warned residents to avoid activities in warm rivers, lakes and other bodies of heated, fresh water, including ponds near power plants. Single deaths from such infections also have been reported this summer in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia. ... Naegleria fowleri moves into the body through the nose and destroys brain tissue. It almost always causes meningitis Symptoms of an infection include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, stiff neck, confusion,...

The third case, in Louisiana, was more unusual. It was a young man whose death in June was traced to the tap water he used in a device called a neti pot. It's a small teapot-shaped container used to rinse out the nose and sinuses with salt water to relieve allergies, colds and sinus trouble. Health officials later found the amoeba in the home's water system. The problem was confined to the house; it wasn't found in city water samples, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana's state epidemiologist. The young man, who was only identified as in his 20s and from...

A parasite known as the "brain-eating amoeba" has claimed its second young American victim this month. Christian Strickland, a 9-year-old from Henrico County in Virginia contracted an infection after visiting a fishing camp in his state. He died of meningitis on August 5. This week, health department officials confirmed that the deadly amoeba--officially known as "Naegleria fowleri"--was to blame. "Sadly, we have had a Naegleria infection in Virginia this summer," Dr. Keri Hall of the Virginia Department of Health, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch. "It's important that people be aware of . . . safe swimming messages." Earlier this month, Courtney...

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...