- The toddler suffered severe neurological damage caused by the amoeba
- Health officials confirmed the amoeba was lurking in the country club’s water
- READ MORE: Nevada boy dies from rare brain-eating amoeba from Lake Mead
Michael Alexander Pollock III died on September 4 after being exposed to the brain-eating amoeba
An Arkansas toddler has died after becoming infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba after being exposed at a country club in Little Rock.
The 16-month-old boy was playing on the country club’s splash pad when he became infected with Naegleria fowleri, a water-dwelling amoeba that causes inflammation in the brain and destroys tissue, killing nearly 100 percent of its victims.
The Arkansas Department of Health confirmed through laboratory testing that the splash pad where the young boy and likely many other children were playing contained traces of the offending amoeba, forcing the exclusive club to close its pool and water playground.
The state coroner said the child, Michael Alexander Pollock III, died the evening of September 4 at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.
He is believed to be one of five victims of the brain-eating infection this year, the most recent being a Texas resident who died after swimming in an Austin lake.
The Country Club of Little Rock has closed its splash pad and pool areas after the health department confirmed the amoeba was lurking in freshwater there
It was believed the child had caught Naegleria fowleri after playing in a splash pad at the country club
The Department of Health said there is no ongoing threat to the public and the pool remains closed to this day
Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled microorganism that lives in warm fresh water, the type that squirts onto splash pads from water fountains.
When the parasite enters the nose and travels through the nasal passages, it reaches the brain where it feeds on brain tissue, leading to serious neurological damage. The infection is called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).
It is not clear how much time passed between Michael’s exposure to the brain-consuming organism and his death, although the infection typically progresses rapidly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms occur between one and 12 days after swimming in contaminated water, and death usually follows about five days later.
The symptoms initially resemble a virus, including headache, nausea, fever and stiff neck. But they quickly progress to more serious neurological problems, including seizures, hallucinations, coma and often death.
Between 1962 and 2022, only 157 cases of PAM were confirmed, but only four people survived.
The Arkansas Department of Health, which sent water samples to the CDC for testing, said: ‘The CDC has reported that one splash pad sample contained viable Naegleria fowleri. The remaining samples are still being processed. The department has been in contact with the Country Club of Little Rock and they have cooperated with the ADH inquiry.”
Although generally very rare, there are believed to be at least five other victims in the US this year, the others being a person in Texas, a resident of Georgia, a two-year-old boy in Nevada, a man in Florida, all died after contracting the disease.
The last case reported in Arkansas was in 2013 when a 12-year-old girl named Kali Hardig contracted the infection from a water park and survived.