Citizens stopped from using tap water after detection of brain-eating amoeba

The citizens of a Texan city, Lake Jackson, have been stopped from using tap water after a six-year-old boy died of a brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, on September 8.

A Texas city declared disaster after a brain-eating amoeba was found in their local water supply after the death of a six-year-old boy, Josiah McIntyre after playing in the water in Lake Jackson.

Officials believed that the boy was infected with Naegleria fowleri which either entered his body at a splash pad in the city or from a hose in the family home.

 

Following the boy’s death, Lake Jackson has closed off its water system. TCEQ is now working with the city to get them off the Brazoria Water Authority (BWA) and go completely to well water.

On Friday eight communities, including Lake Jackson, were told not to drink the water.

Initial test results came back negative, and so on September 17 officials discussed a second set of tests with the Center for Disease Control, the Brazoria County health department and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Tropical Storm Beta slowed their efforts, but on September 22 multiple tests were carried out in Lake Jackson, and on September 25 they were confirmed to be positive for the amoeba at three of the 11 sites in the city.

Those positive samples included water from the Lake Jackson Civic Center Splash Pad, the family’s home hose bib and a dead end fire hydrant close to the splash pad in downtown.

The mortality rate of the amoeba infections is 90 to 95 per cent if it enters via the nose. Those infected with Naegleria fowleri have symptoms including fever, nausea and vomiting, as well as a stiff neck and headaches. Most die within a week. Infections are rare in the United States, with 34 deaths recorded between 2009-18.

According to Dailymail UK, a 13-year-old Tanner Lake Wall had died following a family vacation to a North Florida campground equipped with a water park and lake in August, whereas, the Florida Department of Health had announced that another case was reported in Hillsborough County in July.

‘The notification to us at that time was that he has played at one of play fountains and he may have also played with a water hose at the home,’ said Modesto Mundo, the city manager.

He told KCENTV that the city of 27,000 people, 50 miles south of Houston on the Gulf of Mexico, shut down the splash pad immediately after the boy’s death.

‘We’re surprised just as everybody that the tests came back for the system,’ Mundo said.

Those listed, in addition to Lake Jackson, were Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute, and Rosenberg.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice also sent water tanker trucks to two prison facilities – TDCJ Clemens and TDCJ Wayne Scott – which were impacted.

The tanker trucks were used to provide water for showers at the two prison facilities.

Bottled water was taken into the prisons on 18-wheelers loaded with pallets. Lake Jackson, however, remained under a ‘Do Not Use’ order.

Naegleria fowleri is found around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the majority of infections in the US have been caused by contaminated freshwater in southern states.

An infection was previously confirmed in the US state of Florida earlier this year. At the time, health officials there urged locals to avoid nasal contact with water from taps and other sources.