ST. LOUIS 鈥 A man is battling for his life at a 果酱视频-area hospital after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba after waterskiing at the Lake of Ozarks last week, according to state health officials.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported on Tuesday that the Missouri resident has a laboratory-confirmed infection of Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba commonly found in warm fresh water such as lakes, river and ponds.
The man鈥檚 symptoms began Friday, and he has been hospitalized since Sunday. No other information about the victim was provided.
The amoeba is particularly active when water temperatures exceed 77 degrees. The water temperature in Lake of the Ozarks ranges from 75 to 86 degrees in August, according to fishing websites.
People are infected when water containing the parasite enters the body through the nose, usually while victims are swimming or diving. The infection can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis, which quickly leads to severe brain damage.
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Early symptoms of the condition include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. It usually leads to coma and death after just five days.
The condition is rare. Between 1962 and 2024, there were 167 reported cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it is almost always deadly. Only four of the cases survived.
Dr. Farrin Manian, an infectious disease specialist, with Mercy 果酱视频, said treating the infection involves using anti-fungal medications to kill the parasite as well as steroids to reduce brain swelling.
Because the condition is so rare, determining what works best in humans is challenging, Manian said. Another challenge is the speed at which the damage takes hold.
鈥淚t basically goes into the brain so quickly with lot of inflammation and sometimes hemorrhage, that it鈥檚 very difficult to catch up with,鈥 Manian said. 鈥淓ven very effective drugs may not have a chance to work.鈥
Manian said that he tells people that flu-like symptoms in the middle of summer could be a sign of something serious.
鈥淚f you鈥檝e been in water, especially warm water this time of year, and you start getting headaches and fever and, you know, feeling terrible,鈥 he said, 鈥淚 would say you should seek medical attention immediately.鈥
The last Missouri resident to die from the brain-eating infection was in July of 2022, after swimming in Lake of Three Fires in southwestern Iowa. The resident鈥檚 age was not released. The only other case identified among Missouri residents occurred in 1987, according to state health officials.
Nathan Koffarnus, an epidemiologist with DHSS, urged residents to take precautions.
鈥淭his is an organism that we could find in just about any freshwater source, especially this time of year when the water is so warm,鈥 Koffarnus said. 鈥淭he general guidance is to consider that it鈥檚 probably present and to take precautionary measures.
鈥淚t has to involve some pretty forceful water going up the sinuses,鈥 he said.
Last month, 12-year-old Jaysen Carr died from the amoeba two weeks after spending Fourth of July swimming in one of South Carolina鈥檚 most popular lakes.
His parents told the Associated Press that they had no clue the amoeba even existed.
Jaysen鈥檚 case was not publicly released, so the parents spoke out about the loss of their son to warn others. 鈥淚 am terrified it will happen to someone else,鈥 Calrence Carr told the AP.
Koffarnus said health officials are considering whether any further prevention measures are needed. Water testing is not helpful, he said, because there is no science-based threshold for what is considered unsafe in fresh water.
For now, Missouri health officials want to get the word out about the infection and educate residents about how to protect themselves.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely a terrible illness,鈥 Koffarnus said. 鈥淲e hope that people, if they鈥檙e worried about it, just either hold off on visiting those places until the weather cools down a little bit or take appropriate precautions to not put their head underwater.鈥
The CDC reports that a few infections have occurred when people used tap water that contained the amoeba to rinse their sinuses or cleanse their nasal passages.
In very rare instances, people have become infected from recreational spots like splash pads and a surf park that did not have enough chlorine.
To help protect yourself against a Naegleria fowleri infection, the CDC suggests:
- Hold your nose or wear a nose clip if you are jumping or diving into fresh water.
- Always keep your head above water in hot springs.
- Don鈥檛 dive in shallow water because the amoeba is more likely to live there.
- Use distilled or boiled tap water when rinsing your sinuses or cleansing your nasal passages.
Two weeks after spending the Fourth of July on a popular South Carolina lake, 12-year-old Jaysen Carr died from a brain-eating amoeba that was living in the warm water.
