Iowa beach shut down after woman infected with brain-eating amoeba

A girl turned contaminated with Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, after swimming in a lake in Southern Iowa.
Iowa DNR

A freshwater seashore in Southern Iowa was compelled to shut Friday after a girl who not too long ago swam there turned contaminated with Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, state well being officers introduced.

The swimmer, a girl from Missouri, was within the water on the Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County in direction of the tip of final month. She was later confirmed to be contaminated with the single-celled, free-living amoeba that may trigger a “life-threatening an infection of the mind,” the Iowa Division of Public Well being mentioned in a information launch. 

State officers, together with the members of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, will conduct exams to find out if the lake was the supply of the lady’s an infection.

“It’s strongly believed by public well being specialists that the lake is a possible supply, however we're not limiting the investigation to that supply and it’s not confirmed,” Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for the Missouri Division of Well being and Senior Providers, informed the Des Moines Register on Friday.

Naegleria fowleri could cause a “life-threatening an infection of the mind.”

CDC

The brain-eating amoeba is often present in heat freshwater, such because the Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County, Iowa.

Iowa State Parks

“Further public water sources in Missouri are being examined as effectively,” mentioned Cox.

Cox mentioned officers solely discovered of the an infection on Wednesday.

The amoeba, which is often present in heat freshwater similar to lakes, rivers, and ponds, could cause a mind an infection referred to as main amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Signs embody fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, seizures and hallucinations.

An infection by Naegleria fowleri can occur when water containing the amoeba enters the physique by the nostril. From the nostril, it travels to the mind “the place it destroys mind tissue.” It can't be contracted by swallowing contaminated water.

Well being officers mentioned the an infection is extraordinarily uncommon: since 1962, there have solely ever been 154 recognized instances of PAM identified in america. Between 2012 and 2021, simply 31 infections had been reported within the U.S., 28 of which had been contaminated from leisure waters, in accordance with CDC information.

The an infection doesn't unfold from individual to individual and no different suspected instances of PAM are being investigated, Missouri officers mentioned.