Person Believed to Have Been Infected By Brain-Eating Amoeba in Iowa Lake Has Died

Just over a week ago, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced they were closing the beach of an Iowa lake due to the possibility of a connection to a rare brain disease. Unforuntately, the person who was stricken has now died.

According to our news partner, KCRG TV-9, a person from Missouri has passed away from what a health official from Missouri says was Primary amebic meningoencephalitis. The person has not been identified. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) is a rare brain infection that is usually fatal and caused by Naegleria fowleri. Naegleria fowleri is a free-living ameba* (a single-celled living organism that is too small to be seen without a microscope.)"

The Missouri resident who passed away is believed to have acquired Naegleria Fowleri at Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County in southwest Iowa. The beach at that lake was closed by the Iowa DNR on July 7 and remains closed, awaiting test results of the water.

The CDC says that from 1962–2019, there were only 148 infections of Primary amebic meningoencephalities in the United States, and no more than eight cases during any one year.

As we first told you last week, even though infection by a brain-eating amoeba is extremely rare it's almost always deadly. In our story from July 8, we shared that after the start of symptoms, "the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about 5 days (range 1 to 12 days)," and the fatality rate is over 97%."

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