Tragedy in Florida, United States, where a 13-year-old boy, Tanner Lake Wall, died due to aamoeba eats brain, entered his nose after a swim in a lake during a summer camp. The little boy died on August 2nd, but only in these days his parents have found the strength to tell what happened to the local press. The person responsible for the tragedy was the Naegleria fowleri, a parasite that enters the body through the nose, can migrate into the brain along the olfactory nerve until it destroys brain tissue, causing an infection that is called meningoencefalite amebica primaria and that he killed the little boy in no time.
According to his parents, Tanner had begun to show symptoms of infections two days after the trip to the lake. “Had nausea, he kept throwing up, he had headache quite strong and also the stiff neck”, specified the 13-year-old’s mother, Alicia, who together with her husband Travis then accompanied her son to Putnam Community Medical Center, where, however, doctors diagnosed him with the flu. But the couple felt that it was something more serious. So, they went to another hospital, in Gainesville, where, after a series of tests, the doctors arrived at the diagnosis. “We were told that Tanner had a parasitic amoeba and that there was no one care. Also because after the onset of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about 5 days, so there was already nothing more to be done, “Travis said.
Last August 2, Tanner didn’t have brain activity and his parents decided to remove him from the life support he was attached to for breathing. “People need to be aware that from July until the end of September, with warm waters, this amoeba can enter their body through the nose. One dive or swim is enough,” said the 13-year-old’s dad, who now wants. raise public awareness of what happened to the child so that such episodes do not happen again. Meanwhile, health authorities urged residents to avoid contact of the nasal passages with water from taps and other sources of fresh water. Right here, in fact, infections are more likely, especially in the hottest summer months. Tanner is the second person to be infected in Florida this summer by Naegleria fowleri. In fact, in July, the state Department of Health announced that a case had been reported in Hillsborough County. From 2009 to 2018 they were registered 34 infections across the country. The mortality rate is 97% and only four people out of 145 known infections from 1962 to 2018 survived.
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