BRAIN-EATING MICROBE KILLS ARIZONA TEEN
PHOENIX -- A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain. Aaron Evans died Sept. 17 of naegleria fowleri, an organism doctors said he probably picked up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu.
According to the Centers For Disease Control, naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials said they've noticed a spike in cases, with six naegleria-related cases so far -- all of them fatal. Some health officials have put their communities on high alert, telling people to stay away from warm, standing water.
"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational water-born illnesses for the CDC. "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better. In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."
Attention hypochondriacs...
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