According to the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, a two-year-old boy died last week from a brain-eating amoeba infection.
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed the cause of death. State investigators believe the child, Woodrow Turner, may have been exposed to the amoeba at a natural hot spring in Lincoln County called Ash Springs.
“Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic single-celled living amoeba that occurs naturally in the environment,” said the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health report. “This amoeba can cause a very serious, rare infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis that destroys brain tissue and is almost always fatal.”
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Four out of 157 people infected with the amoeba since 1962 have survived, according to the CDC. Symptoms of an infection include severe headache, fever, nausea and a stiff neck, and may start between one and 12 days after exposure.
The boy’s mother, Briana Bundy, announced her son’s tragic death on Facebook.
“He is my hero and I will forever be grateful to God for giving me the goodest baby boy on earth, and I am grateful to know I will have that boy in heaven someday,” she wrote.
