Lillian Smart, 8, died Saturday after her family said she contracted Naegleria fowleri, a rare amoeba that can cause a deadly brain infection. (Facebook/Love for Lillian Smart)
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An 8-year-old Louisiana girl died over the weekend from an infection linked to a brain-eating amoeba that health officials believe was contracted from swimming in a lake.
Lillian Smart died Saturday at Ruston hospital, one day after celebrating her eighth birthday, FOX News reported.
On Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Health announced an unidentified resident had been hospitalized after becoming infected with Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba that can cause a rare and often deadly brain infection. Lillian’s family posted on social media that she was in the pediatric intensive care unit at a Ruston hospital and was ill from Naegleria fowleri.
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What is the brain-eating amoeba?
According to the, the amoeba enters the brain through the olfactory nerve in the nose. Once it’s inside, the amoeba causes an infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.
The amoeba is dangerous in extremely warm water, like lakes and rivers in southern parts of the U.S. and other areas with hot, sometimes dry summers.
Symptoms can start with headache and nausea. When the pain becomes severe, it is almost always too late to save the infected individual.Â
Theexplains in a report that of the 167 cases reported in the U.S. between 1962 and 2024, only four people have survived, and most deaths occur within five days of getting sick.
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