Boy goes swimming and dies of parasite

In Florida, a boy went swimming in the lake – a few days later he died in a hospital. The 13-year-old had caught a deadly worm that ate through his meninges.

In the US state of Florida, a 13-year-old man died of an infection after a parasite had eaten its way through his meninges. The boy apparently caught the worm while swimming in a lake – doctors initially made a wrong diagnosis.

After swimming in a Florida lake, the boy complained of headache, nausea, and vomiting. Since the parents could not explain the symptoms, they took the 13-year-old to the Putnam Community Medical Center in Palatka. There the doctors made an initial diagnosis. The teenager had a harmless sore throat, it was said.

There is no cure

But his health did not improve. At a clinic in Gainsville, the doctors then discovered the real cause of the symptoms: They found a dangerous parasite in the teenagers’ brain – the unicellular amoeba Naegleria fowleri. This can trigger dangerous meningitis in humans.

“We are sorry to have to tell you, but your son has a parasitic amoeba and there is no cure,” the doctors at the hospital told the parents. This is reported by the US news channel Fox News.

Other cases of infection are known – but no warning signs

According to the RKI, Naegleria fowleri is mainly found in warm fresh waters of the tropics and subtropics. However, infections are also repeatedly known in the USA.

Also in 2018, a 29-year-old died after visiting a surfing and water skiing facility in Texas – also of meningitis caused by the parasite.

Since 1962 the health department in Tallahassee (Florida) counted 37 cases of infection with Naegleria fowleri. Signs warning of the amoeba were not put up.

More than 50 other children were in the lake

According to several US media reports, the mother of the sick boy said that more than 50 other children, her husband and their daughters had been in the water of the lake. However, only her 13-year-old son had contracted the deadly parasite.

– .