This household picture reveals Clarence Carr and his son Jaysen at his center college soccer sport in Columbia, S.C. Credit score: Carr Household by way of AP
A 12-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba two weeks after a vacation weekend on a well-liked South Carolina lake.
The brain-eating amoeba enters the physique when water is compelled up the nostril, like when somebody jumps or dives within the water.
It causes an an infection that swells the mind and destroys tissue. Fewer than 10 circumstances are reported every year within the U.S., however nearly all are deadly.
Listed here are some issues to know in regards to the amoeba, its newest sufferer and different risks on freshwater lakes:
What’s the brain-eating amoeba?
The amoeba’s scientific title is Naegleria fowleri and it’s most harmful in water that stays for some time over 77 levels Fahrenheit (25 levels Celsius), together with in lakes and rivers within the southern a part of the U.S. and different locations with scorching, generally dry summers like Pakistan and Australia.
The amoeba enters the mind via the olfactory nerve within the nostril. As soon as inside, it causes an an infection referred to as main amebic meningoencephalitis.
Signs begin as a reasonably commonplace headache and nausea. By the point the ache turns into extreme, it’s nearly all the time too late to save lots of the contaminated particular person. Of the 167 circumstances reported within the U.S. between 1962 and 2024, solely 4 folks have survived, in response to the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. A lot of the deaths occurred inside 5 days of getting sick, in response to the CDC.
One an infection in a physique of water would not improve the possibilities of one other an infection in the identical physique of water, the company mentioned. The amoeba can’t transfer from one particular person to a different.
It was the primary dying from the amoeba in South Carolina since 2016, the CDC mentioned.
What occurred?
Jaysen Carr went swimming at Lake Murray about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Columbia over the July Fourth weekend.
He obtained sick a number of days later and died on July 18.
Lake Murray in South Carolina is seen on this picture on July 29, 2025, in Chapin, S.C. Credit score: AP Picture/Meg Kinnard
His father and mom had by no means heard of the amoeba earlier than a health care provider in tears informed them what checks of his spinal fluid had discovered.
Clarence Carr mentioned he was shocked to study South Carolina, like most different U.S. states, has no regulation requiring public reporting of deaths or infections from the amoeba. The lake wasn’t closed and no water testing was carried out.
“My son was a very smart individual. If he had one warning, he would have thought swimming in the lake was a bad idea,” Carr mentioned.
The amoeba is pretty frequent and is most harmful when the water is heat.
Researchers try to determine why the infections are so uncommon. Some folks have been discovered to have had antibodies, signalling they could have survived publicity. Others could die from mind swelling and different issues with out the amoeba ever being detected.
“My son lost his life swimming. We assumed it was safe,” Carr mentioned.
The amoeba can present up in scorching springs, rivers and, on uncommon events, in faucet water. That is why docs advocate utilizing sterile water for cleansing nasal passages with a neti pot.
The one option to be utterly protected is to not swim in lakes or rivers and, should you do, maintain your head above water. Pinching your nostril or utilizing nostril clips when diving or swimming can maintain water out of your nostril.
Different risks lurking in lakes and rivers
There are different risks in swimming in lakes and rivers as an alternative of swimming pools, the place chemical compounds can kill off harmful micro organism and different organisms.
A mouthful of water may include E.coli micro organism. And whereas the micro organism usually stay within the intestines of wholesome folks and animals, some strains could cause a variety of situations, together with urinary tract an infection, cystitis, intestinal an infection and vomiting, with the worst circumstances resulting in life-threatening blood poisoning, in response to the Mayo Clinic.
Algae also can trigger diseases. Cyanobacteria—additionally known as blue-green algae—are plant-like organisms that stay in water.
The algae can appear like foam, scum, mats, or paint on the floor of the water and may develop beneath it.
The organisms can shortly develop uncontrolled, or “bloom,” in heat climate, helped alongside by extreme vitamins in fertilizers and pet waste carried alongside by stormwater.
A few of the algae produce toxins that may trigger signs together with pores and skin irritation, abdomen cramps, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint ache, mouth blisters, seizures, and acute liver harm, in response to the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
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What to know in regards to the brain-eating amoeba that killed a boy swimming in a lake (2025, July 29)
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