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Jeremy and Julie Lewis were dreading the warm calendar month , when so many people go swimming , and the headlines that egress in August confirmed their fears . Three more people had died from the brain - eat up ameba that vote out their son a year ago .
On Aug. 29 , 2010 , the Texas brace lost their 7 - yr - old boy , Kyle , who had been camping with them , his sister and two cousins . He compress the amoeba while swimming in warm water .
This image shows tissue infected with the amoebaNaegleria fowleri.,
" We do n’t recognise why it picked him and it did n’t get anybody else , " Jeremy Lewis said . " As bad as this is to say , this is luck of the draw . "
Since then , he and Julie have founded theKyle Lewis Amoeba Awareness Foundationand have worked to give others the knowledge they did n’t have .
The spicy atmospheric condition of summertime brings the itch to cool down off with a fresh water dip and , as a result , a vizor in infections by the amoeba , Naegleria fowleri , which can kill an unfortunate bather within days .
The contagion strikes perhaps three masses in the United States each year . In many cases it is very well-to-do to prevent — people can avoid warm fresh water supply or simply vellicate their nozzle , which is where the amoeba enters — but for those who concentrate it , it is almost always fatal . No discourse exists . [ 7 annihilative Infectious disease ]
Three people have already died of it this summertime , with a calendar month to go . mellow temperature is the independent indicator that the unmarried - celled blobs will be in the water system , and while officials do n’t have enough information to tie those three cases to any heat undulation , July ’s was a doozy .
This season , it appears two of the three contracted it from taking a dip .
The heat of summertime
A 9 - year - old Virginia son apparently contract the ameba at a fishing camp , where his female parent said he was douse ; a 16 - year - old Florida girl became ominous after swimming ; and it was announced that a young man in Louisiana had died in June after using septic tap water to irrigate his sinus , the Associated Press report .
" For the last year , this is what we have been perfectly panicky of — this month , last calendar month and September , " Jeremy Lewis say .
Theheat of summertypically make for infections becauseNaegleria fowleribecomes alive in warm fresh water — although it can also be receive in geothermal pools , inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or ignite tap water of less than 117 degrees Fahrenheit ( 47 point Celsius ) , according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Although hotness this July unwrap disk in the central and easterly neighborhood of the United States , the CDC does not have enough information to colligate the heat undulation with individual infection , according to Jonathan Yoder , a CDC epidemiologist .
For an transmission to occur , the ameba musttravel through the noseand venous sinus to the mastermind . Then it infects the head-on part of the brain , particularly the olfactory bulbs and cerebral pallium . The amoeba does not intend to infect humans , Yoder sound out ; it normally eats bacteria , but once inside the head , it multiply and feeds on brain cells . [ 10 Most devilish and Disgusting Parasites ]
As of 2008 , officials knew of only one well - documented case of a dupe surviving .
Kyle ’s story
The Lewises had be after to visit Gulf Shores , Ala. , in late August 2010 , but because of the Deepwater Horizon calamity , which had flooded the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil that year , they determine to jaunt inland with the mob camper trailer .
Kyle swam with the other three nipper in multiple places , and his parents still do n’t know where he pick up the infection . They generate home on a Saturday , and four days later , in the eve after a baseball plot , he developed an intense concern . The Lewises maintain him out of school day the next daylight but his condition became increasingly worse , with fever , sickness and puking . At a hospital , staff recognized his condition as meningitis , an inflammation of the liner of the brain . By Saturday , he was hallucinate , get out - of - dead body experience , and appeared to be get trouble recognizing masses , Jeremy Lewis said .
At this spot , the infirmary staff narrowed the causal agent down tobacterial meningitisor an infection called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis ( PAM ) , which is make by the encephalon - eating ameba . Kyle also had spasms : He would start screaming and his body would lock away up ; then afterward , he would look unaware of what had just happened , his father said .
Jeremy Lewis awaken at 5:30 a.m. that Sunday to find his son surrounded by doctor and a two-dimensional line on the monitor that chase after the boy ’s wit activity . The boy pass away later on that day .
Until their son became infected , the Lewises had no thought this ameba even survive . If they had , Kyle might still be alive .
" My wife and I made a decision : People demand to sleep together about this , " Jeremy Lewis said .
Since 1962 , when reportage commence , most PAM caseful have been people who swam in ardent water during the summer , particularly in southerly states . These infection are easily prevent . The CDC urge avoiding freshwater activity when urine temperatures are high , and if you do go in , hold your nose or using nose clips and head off trouble the sediment in shallow , strong fresh water .
The death in Louisiana was unusual because the victim contracted the ameba from wiretap water . wellness functionary afterward found the amoebas in the home water provision , butnot in city H2O , concord to the Associated Press .
The CDC place the tally of documented casing , admit the most recent , at 121 , averaging out to about three death per year in the United States since 1962 . ( Lewis said the routine is slightly higher , at 132 , because of 11 additional cases documented retrospectively prior to 1962 in Virginia . )
Lewis feel people dismiss the disease by calling it rarified .
" What I want to know as a Father-God who has set about a foot and a Church Father who has lost a child : How many more kids is it going to take before we stop hollo it ' rare ' ? " he said .
Death by overwhelm is more vernacular , but at least people are aware of the risk when they swim or let their kids swim , he said . " Give us the selection , give us the selective information [ so ] we can make the decision . "
