Whitewater rafter dies from amoebic infection after NC trip

An aquatic brain-eating amoeba killed an OH teen after she reportedly contracted the infection while whitewater rafting in North Carolina, officials said.

While the NCDHHS didn’t release the person’s identity, 18-year-old Lauren Seitz’s church, Church of the Messiah United Methodist, in Westerville, OH says the teen girl died Sunday.

According to the Charlotte Observer, officials on the local, state, and national level are investigating Seitz’s death and testing the water at the whitewater center.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health officials that the June 19 death of Lauren Seitz, 18, who had just visited North Carolina is suspected to be from an amoeba that is found in warm lakes during the summer. According to the CDC, fewer than 10 cases have been reported annually in the United State during the last 53 years.

“We will deeply miss her, but we were so blessed by her presence and her gifts that she just shared in a attractive way”, Wilson said.

Wilson said a group of 32 students traveled to West Virginia and North Carolina to sing at churches and nursing homes.

The center says it adds chlorine to the system, which filters 12 million gallons a day, and also treats the water with enough ultraviolet radiation to “inactiviate” the type of amoeba thought to be responsible for the death.

People cannot get infected by swallowing water contaminated with the naegleria.

Marcus Plescia, Mecklenburg County Health Department director stressed that investigators do not know for sure if the woman contracted the amoeba at the whitewater center.

A letter sent out by Westerville South High School interim principal Mark White, the school Seitz attended, said counselors were going to be at the school Wednesday. Her family is requesting donations to two different funds that support music education programs; you can find more information about how to contribute here.

Naegleria fowleri infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose.

Avoid digging in, or stirring up, the sediment while taking part in water-related activities in shallow, warm freshwater areas.