Rare disease from freshwater amoebas kill child

By Bo Petersen - The (Charleston) Post and Courier

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MOUNT PLEASANT -- Liza Hollingsworth could play basketball or guitar. The 10-year-old loved animals and loved to draw her own cartoons. She was an honor student at Porter-Gaud. She loved the water.

What happened to her was horrific, as her father says.

She went swimming. Nobody's sure whether in Lake Moultrie or a pond, but somewhere she got a noseful of water. A few days later, she got a headache. Three days later, she died. A swarm of tiny amoebas had gotten into her central nervous system and caused primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. By the time anybody realized she was sick, she had no chance.

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Just as disturbing, the amoeba isn't rare. It's found throughout the South in relatively stagnant, shallow freshwater.

"The warmer the water, the more likely you are to find it," said epidemiologist Jonathan Yoder, with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As common as the amoeba is, it's rare for someone to be infected. Since 1962, only 111 cases in the United States were reported to CDC.

"There are no real precautions that can be taken, other than to avoid fresh water," said Kathryn Arden, S.C. Health and Environmental Control regional medical director.

The CDC is looking at science-based recommendations for reducing the risk of infection.

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