Georgia resident dies from rare brain-eating amoeba

A resident of Georgia died after being infected by a rare, brain-eating amoeba, the state department of health announced.

The Georgia Department of Public Health said in a news release that the unidentified person likely became infected with Naegleria fowleri while swimming in a freshwater lake or river. No other information about when or where the person was infected was released.

Naegleria fowleri “destroys brain tissue, causing brain swelling and usually death,” the department said. It is contracted when contaminated water goes up a person’s nose. It cannot spread from person to person.

The amoeba causes a brain infection, primary amebic meningoencephalitis, that causes a number of adverse symptoms that start in a matter of days, including severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting that lead to seizures, coma and death.

“Once symptoms start, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about five days,” the department said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that the amoeba can be found in any warm freshwater. Infections are most common during summer months when water temperatures are highest.

The agency suggests several precautions to reduce one’s risk of infection, including not jumping or diving into water, holding your nose shut if you go underwater and not disturbing the sediment at the bottom of a body of freshwater, where the amoeba typically live.

According to the CDC, there were a total of 29 infections reported in the U.S. between 2013 and 2022, but the fatality rate is about 97%. “Only four people have survived out of 157 known infected individuals in the United States from 1962 to 2022,” the agency said.

While the amoeba can’t infect people via drinking water, it can live in any warm freshwater. In March, Florida officials announced a man had died from infection, likely after rinsing his sinuses with tap water.