Oklahoma Death Attributed to ‘Brain-Eating’ Amoeba
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cosmin4000/iStock/Thinkstock(OKLAHOMA CITY) — An Oklahoma resident died on Thursday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said, after contracting Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis.
According to a press release from the health department, the individual had recently gone swimming in Oklahoma’s Lake Murray. It describes PAM as “an extremely rare and usually deadly disease caused by infection with a single-celled organism.” Naegleria fowleri are often present in lakes, ponds and rivers, but multiple in warm and stagnant water.
The state’s health department says that people can be exposed to the ameba when they dive or submerge their head in contaminated water. The ameba can travel up the nose to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue.
Symptoms of Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis include fever, headache, nausea and vomiting, and later on stiff neck, seizures, hallucinations and coma.
The latest case is the seventh among Oklahomans since 1998.
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