An eight-year-old girl believed to have contracted a brain-eating bug while swimming in a lake has died. Lillian Smart passed away at a hospital in Ruston, Louisiana, on Saturday (August 22).
Her distraught family said in a statement posted on social media that the injuries to her brain were too severe for her little body to recover from. They added: "Everyone did everything they could to keep her here. We are heartbroken and honestly do not know what to do next. How do we put one foot in front of the other without our girl?"
Infection confirmed
Lillian died a day after her eighth birthday. Officials at the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed last Wednesday that a local resident was in hospital after becoming infected with the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.
Commonly referred to as the "brain-eating amoeba", Naegleria fowleri thrives in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs. It is not found in swimming pools or saltwater.
Rare but fatal
Brain tissue can be destroyed if the organ is infected, though such infections are rare, but almost always fatal, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The journal, Science, notes the bug is usually a "harmless pond dweller" unless it enters the nose. It can then crawl up nerve fibres in the nasal cavity and through tiny openings in the skull until it arrives at the brain.
Source of infection
Fox News reports that Lillian's parents said their daughter was admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit and had identified the bug as the cause of her illness.
The Louisiana Department of Health said the infection was most probably acquired during a swim in Lake Claiborne, a reservoir located near the town of Homer, Louisiana.
Symptoms and outlook
Naegleria fowleri can cause primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), the symptoms of which include headache, fever, vomiting and nausea. It can then lead to a stiff neck, seizures and coma, with symptoms usually showing some five days from the date of the infection.
About 97% of those who contract PAM die from the infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Naegleria fowleri is "very rare" in the UK, though there have been warnings that it could increase as waters warm due to climate change.
