A “brain-eating” amoeba has been found in the water supply of a Texas city where a 6-year-old boy recently died from an infection with the organism, according to news reports.
The boy, Josiah McIntyre, who lived in Lake Jackson, a city near Houston, Texas, died on Sept. 8 of a rare infection with the amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, according to NBC News. Naegleria fowleri is naturally found in warm freshwater, such as lakes and rivers, and people usually become infected after swimming or diving in bodies of contaminated freshwater, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Infections, which are rare, happen when contaminated water goes up the nose — you cannot become infected from swallowing contaminated water, the CDC says.
Josiah’s family said he may have been exposed to Naegleria fowleri from either their home’s water hose, or a city “splash pad,” where
