A North Carolina teenager is critically ill after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba commonly found in ponds, lakes and rivers.
Naegleria fowleri cases can result in a brain infection known as “primary amebic meningoencephalitis.” This causes severe headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, seizures, a coma, and usually leads to death in around five days. Fewer than 10 people are infected each year in the U.S. but 97 percent die.
