Experts try to gauge threat to Minnesota from water parasite

“Hunter’s condition deteriorated throughout the night and he was declared brain dead this morning”, a statement from Bryan Boutain, Hunter’s uncle and the spokesman for the family said.

Ariola had argued the city, county and state should have provided warnings because a 7-year-old girl had died in a similar way as his son two years earlier, in 2010.

The Minnesota Department of Health has reported that a child has been sickened by a rare form of meningitis called primary amebic meningoencephalitis after swimming in a lake that is believed to be infested by the Naegleria fowleri amoeba.

“Now the amoeba is plastered up in the mucus membranes of the nose and eats its way into structures of the nose and gets into the brain”, said Dr. William Schaffner with the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The amoeba lives in warm fresh water.

The infections are more common in warm southern states.

“To have 35 cases in Minnesota would be rare, but to have 35 in the nation is extremely rare”, said.

“While the only sure way to prevent PAM is to avoid participation in freshwater-related activities, you can reduce your risk by keeping your head out of the water, using nose clips or holding the nose shut, and avoiding stirring up sediment at the bottom of shallow freshwater areas”. The initial symptoms include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, and stiff neck. The parasite was confirmed in the deaths of two children who became infected in Lily Lake in Stillwater, in 2010 and 2012, but the infection had never been found so far north before.

“It is not what we think of as typical because the risk is greater when water temperatures are higher and water levels are lower”, said Trisha Robinson, waterborne diseases unit supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Health.

Officials say the infection can take place if an amoeba called Naegleria fowleri travels through the nasal cavity in the brain.