Arizona issues health warning as person falls ill with suspected BRAIN-EATING AMOEBA ‘after swimming in state park’
- It would be the 30th case recorded in the US since 2013 and the 10th in AZ since the 1960s
- Brain-eating amoeba kills 97% of patients, but it is unclear whether the person died
- READ MORE: Since 1962, only four people have survived a brain-eating amoeba
An Arizonan has identified a suspected case of Naegleria Fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba.
The state and Mohave County health departments told DailyMail.com that the cause of the illness has not been confirmed and declined to provide the person’s gender and current condition.
Only four Americans ever diagnosed with the destructive infection have lived to tell the tale. The amoeba, which lurks in freshwater, typically kills 97 percent of its victims.
If confirmed to be a rare and serious infection, it would be the 30th recorded in the US since 2013.
Arizona’s health department on Tuesday sent samples, believed to be from fresh water where people often swim for fun, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and expects to know with certainty that the cause of the infection is in fact the brain-eating amoeba from the end of the week.
N. fowleri is a brain-eating amoeba that causes sudden severe symptoms and often leads to brain damage and death
Dr. Eugene Livar, deputy director of Public Health Preparedness at the Arizona Department of Health Services, told DailyMail.com, “Mohave County public health officials and the Arizona Department of Health Services are working together on a suspected case of Naegleria Fowleri.
‘The investigation into possible exposures and exposure locations is still ongoing.’
Details about the case are scarce. For example, the departments have not announced whether the person, whose gender is unknown, is currently being treated in hospital or whether he/she has died, as is very common with these infections.