Brain-Eating Amoeba Infects Boy In Florida

A boy in Florida is currently recovering after a brain-eating amoeba began attacking his body. The patient, Zachary Reyna, contracted Naegleria fowleri.

According to Reyna’s family, the boy was exposed to the amoeba while kneeboarding near his house in a ditch that was filled with water. The day after he was infected, August 4, Reyna slept all day long causing his parents to begin worrying.

These types of brain-eating amoeba are extremely rare and only 120 cases have been reported and confirmed since the early 1960s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Reyna’s parents said that he is a very active seventh grader so sleeping throughout the day was definitely an issue. Once they took him to see a doctor, the medical personnel diagnosed him with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis which came as a result of his infection from the brain-eating amoeba.

Although surgeons operated on the boy, he is still fighting for his life as a result of these brain-eating amoeba’s normally being fatal. Another girl, Kali Harding is giving the family hope after she was infected with a similar parasite

The twelve year-old Arkansas girl was infected with almost the exact same amoeba a few weeks ago and has since moved in and out of the intensive care unit. Now that she has been treated for a few weeks, a spokesperson for the family recently stated that she is in “fair” condition.

Out of the very few cases there have been, only two patients have ever survived after being infected by a brain-eating parasite according to data covering the past half century.

The brain-eating amoeba is normally found in hot or warm bodies of water resulting in the majority of cases popping up in the southeast where the amoeba can survive. Now that Hardig has almost fully recovered, hopefully the same will happen for Zachary Reyna.