RARE BUT DEADLY

Nebraska Child Dies of Brain-Eating Amoeba After River Swim

There are only a handful of infections nationwide each year—almost always fatal.

A Nebraska child has died after apparently becoming infected with a brain-eating amoeba following a swim in the Elkhorn River, health authorities announced Wednesday. It’s the first fatality in state history connected to Naegleria fowleri, which causes only a handful of infections nationwide each year—almost always fatal. Officials say the amoeba is found in freshwater and gets into the body through the nose and then travels to the brain. “We can only imagine the devastation this family must be feeling,” Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse said in a statement, according to the Omaha World-Herald. “And our deepest condolences are with them. We can honor the memory of this child by becoming educated about the risk and then taking steps to prevent infection.”