The cause behind the death of a child after swimming in an eastern Nebraska river is suspected to have been caused through a rare infection coming from a brain-eating amoeba making it the second probable death in the Midwest this summer and giving a blow to the apprehensions whether climate change is playing a role is causing such havoc.
The Douglas County Department of Health based in Omaha, Nebraska, made a report public on Wednesday citing that the doctors in the facility are of the view that the child might have died of primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a usually fatal infection caused by the naegleria fowleri amoeba.
The officials further in their record mention that the contact of the child with that of amoeba must have come on Sunday while the deceased was swimming. The officials haven’t released the identity of the child who died.
Last month, a Missouri resident died of the same infection likely caused by the amoeba at Lake of Three Fires in southwestern Iowa. The officials in Iowa have closed the lake’s beach as a precautionary measure for almost three weeks since it was first closed, reported the American media.
Doctors and officials say people are usually infected when they swim or dive in the water containing the amoeba and it enters the person’s body through the nose. Among other sources that are recorded in the Houston area city in 2020 includes tainted tap water.
The symptoms of the people being attacked by this deadly infection include fever, headache, nausea or vomiting, progressing to a stiff neck, loss of balance, hallucinations, and seizures.
As per the data made public by the Centre for Disease Control, there were 154 cases reported between 1962 and 2021 in the U.S., with only four survivors, of those, 71 cases were reported between 2000 and 2021.
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Texas and Florida recorded the most infections with 39 and 37 cases respectively, and the amoeba is typically found in southern states because it thrives in waters that are warmer than 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius).
Douglas County Health Director Dr. Lindsey Huse in a news conference said, “Our regions are becoming warmer,” she said. “As things warm up, the water warms up and water levels drop because of drought, you see that this organism is a lot happier and more typically grows in those situations.”
Researcher Sutherland Maciver has made a detailed study on amoeba at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at Edinburgh Medical School in Scotland and is of the view that as it happens in other diseases in this case as well not all the infections are reported and hence 430 cases being reported worldwide to date is certainly an undercount.
He also believes that the Nebraska case cannot be said to be essentially attributable to climate change.
Owing to the life-threatening impact it can cause health officials to recommend that freshwater swimmers must plug their noses, avoid putting their heads underwater and avoid any activities that can force water inside their eyes, mouth, or nose.
In the detailing officials have made it absolutely clear that drinking the contaminated water won’t infect you.