A North Carolina man visited a water park and left with a deadly brain-eating amoeba.
The man, whose identity has not been confirmed, became ill after swimming in a manmade lake at Fantasy Lake Water Park in Hope Mill on July 12. The Centers for Disease Control said that the illness and subsequent death was caused by Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba responsible for killing just 145 people in the U.S. from 1962 to 2018.
The amoeba, found in warm bodies of fresh water and hot springs, enters through the nose while the victim is swimming and travels up into the brain. Once there, people usually start to manifest symptoms within five days and typically die less than week later.
Symptoms include headaches, nausea, confusion, seizures, and hallucinations. The survival rate for people infected is exceedingly low, with about 95% dying after it enters their system.
Infections typically occur in the summer, when the water in lakes around the country begin to heat up and people venture out with their families to go for a swim.
