A child has died after a suspected rare infection from a brain-eating amoeba after swimming in a river, US health officials have said.
The unnamed child went for a dip in the Elkhorn River in eastern Nebraska on August 8 and developed symptoms about five days later.
They contracted an infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis and were admitted to the hospital within 48 hours after the onset of symptoms and died 10 days later, according to Douglas County Health Department.
On Thursday, health officials said the infection is caused by Naegleria fowleri, also known as brain-eating amoeba, and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Friday that it had found Naegleria fowleri in the child’s cerebrospinal fluid (a watery fluid that flows in and around your brain and spinal cord).
“We can only imagine the devastation this family must be feeling, and our deepest condolences are with them. We can honour the memory of this child by becoming educated about the risk and then taking steps to prevent infection", Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse said in a statement Wednesday.
The CDC says the amoeba can enter the body through the nose when in the water, where it then travels up the nose to the brain.
The brain-eating single-cell organisms often thrive in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals and ponds.
Dr Huse said droughts and heat - as a result of climate change - in Nebraska had made it easier for the organism to thrive in the river.
It was the first death from the deadly disease in the state’s history and the second in the Midwest this summer.
Last month, a person in Missouri from the same infection after swimming at the beach at Lake of Three Fires State Park in Iowa.
Caleb Ziegelbaue, 13, was hospitalised in Florida in July after contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba and has been taken off his ventilator but is still fighting for his life.
His aunt Katie Chiet posted on a GoFundMe page raising money for his treatment.
"His MRI scan continues to show damage in his brain but we remain hopeful that he'll turn the corner soon and make his way back to us!" The page said.
Infections are extremely rare with around 31 infections reported in the US in the last 10 years. However, the fatality rate is around 97 per cent.
“Millions of recreational water exposures occur each year, while only 0 to 8 Naegleria fowleri infections are identified each year,” Nebraska state epidemiologist Matthew Donahue said in a statement.
The Elkhorn River was not closed but Dr Huse urged people wear nose plugs if they swim in the river.
