A rare brain-eating amoeba that killed a six-year-old boy has been found in the water supply of a city in southeastern Texas, prompting environmental officials to take steps to flush and disinfect the pipes.
Josiah McIntyre, who had just started elementary school in Lake Jackson, fell ill in the first week of September with a headache and flu-like symptoms. Days later, after a battery of tests, doctors at Texas Children's Hospital determined that he had been infected by Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba found in rivers, lakes and hot springs. If ingested through the nose it can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare debilitating disease that is usually fatal.