An infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba killed a child who swam in a Nebraska river over the weekend, health officials said Friday. It was the first such death in the state’s history and the second in the Midwest this summer.
The child, whose name was not released by officials, contracted the infection, known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis, while swimming with family in a shallow part of the Elkhorn River in eastern Nebraska on Sunday, according to the Douglas County Health Department.
At a news conference on Thursday, health officials said the typically fatal infection is caused by Naegleria fowleri, also known as brain-eating amoeba, and most likely led to the child’s death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday that it had found Naegleria fowleri in the child’s cerebrospinal fluid.
Last month, a person in Missouri died because of the same amoeba infection, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The person had been swimming at the beach at Lake of Three Fires State Park in Iowa. Out of precaution, the Iowa Department of Public Health closed the lake’s beach for about three weeks.
The brain-eating amoebas, which are single-cell organisms, usually thrive in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals and ponds, though they can also be present in soil. They enter the body through the nose and then move into the brain.
People usually become infected while swimming in lakes and rivers, according to the C.D.C.
Infections from brain-eating amoeba are extremely rare: From 2012 to 2021, only 31 cases were reported in the U.S., according to the C.D.C.
An infection, however, almost always leads to death. In the United States, there were 143 infections from 1962 through 2017. All but four of them were fatal, the C.D.C. said. More than half of the infections occurred in Texas and Florida, where the climate is warm and water activities are popular.
The nickname for the amoebas is derived from the way they destroy brain tissue, using the brain as a food source after being forced up the sinuses through a rush of water. But when the microbe is in water, it feasts on bacteria.
Lindsay Huse, the health director of the Douglas County Health Department, said at the news conference that recent drought conditions and heat in Nebraska had made it easier for the organism to thrive in the river.
Global warming increases the likelihood of drought. Higher temperatures dry out soils and vegetation and cause more precipitation to fall as rain than snow, which can affect water availability for agriculture.
Dr. Matthew Donahue, the state epidemiologist, said in a statement that while most infections caused by brain-eating amoeba occur in the South, recent infections have been identified farther north.
“Limiting the opportunities for freshwater to get into the nose are the best ways to reduce the risk of infection,” he said.
Dr. Huse said that officials did not plan to shut off access to the Elkhorn River.
She added that people should be aware “that there is a risk — even a small one.”
Dr. Huse recommended that people wear nose plugs if they swim in the river.
Claire Fahy contributed reporting.
