Rare 'brain-eating' amoeba infection behind death of 2-year-old in Nevada

Naegleria fowleri, the amoeba responsible for the child's death, enters the body via the nose and travels to the brain where it begins destroying tissue. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

A 2-year-old boy in Nevada has died after being infected with a "brain-eating" amoeba after visiting a natural hot spring in the state. 

In a statement published July 20, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) announced that the boy — named Woodrow Bundy, according to a Facebook post from his family — was likely exposed to the microbe at Ash Springs in Lincoln County. According to the DPBH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the child's condition was caused by Naegleria fowleri, a single-cell organism known to cause such brain infections.