NC - Ohio teen dies from brain-eating amoeba

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According to health officials an 18-year-old girl has died after recently visiting the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte suspected to be from an amoeba that is naturally present in warm lakes during the summer.
https://www.facebook.com/fox5dc/?fref=nf

Officials: Ohio teen dies from brain-eating amoeba after visit to Whitewater Center

An 18-year-old girl from Ohio has died from a suspected brain-eating amoeba after a visit to the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, according to health officials.

Mecklenburg County and North Carolina State health officials have been told by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Lauren Elisabeth Seitz, 18, of Westerville, Ohio passed away Sunday, June 19, due to Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis, an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri.
 
I go here all the time. Actually taking my dog paddle boarding today. I cannot get over how it happened in the rafting part, which it totally different from the river. It's man made, and seems very clean and free from silt. The water is also filtered and hit with UV rays I believe. The river on the other hand while clean, it's very warm with a lot of silt and sediment. It's that nasty icky kind that you don't want to put your foot in. With such low odds of contracting this, I'm more worried about getting hit my lightening from above than amoeba from below. I cannot imagine the pain her family is in.
 
The odds are low. I swim a lot and never worry about it but it's sad and freaky when it happens. Her poor family. She was so young and it's nothing they could have saved her from.
 
I just got home, and saw on Twitter that amoeba species was found and the USNWC rafting area will be closed by county officials. On a side note, I spoke with the guy who helps me launch my SUP near the Whitewater Center today about this. He used to work there, and said don't believe what I read and heard about the filtering of the rafting water in the center. He said it's really not done like they claimed.
 
I go here all the time. Actually taking my dog paddle boarding today. I cannot get over how it happened in the rafting part, which it totally different from the river. It's man made, and seems very clean and free from silt. The water is also filtered and hit with UV rays I believe. The river on the other hand while clean, it's very warm with a lot of silt and sediment. It's that nasty icky kind that you don't want to put your foot in. With such low odds of contracting this, I'm more worried about getting hit my lightening from above than amoeba from below. I cannot imagine the pain her family is in.

I don't want to scare you about your dog but I used to have a dog many years ago and we went to a lake that had a shallow water section and we visited the lake in the really hot part of the summer and my dog was fetching sticks in the water. It was another state.

My dog ended up getting a really bad ear infection that spread to his brain and we had to put him down. He got to where he couldnt stand up and antibiotics didn't kill the bacteria or whatever he had gotten.

We have also had in the news of children getting something similar from hot water shallow water pools in community pools in hot summer.


I no longer will let my dogs go in water in summer time when really hot.
 
Interesting this disease mostly strikes young people. I recall reading it does strike adults, but very rarely.

People can drink amoeba infested water and not get sick.
 
I don't want to scare you about your dog but I used to have a dog many years ago and we went to a lake that had a shallow water section and we visited the lake in the really hot part of the summer and my dog was fetching sticks in the water. It was another state.

My dog ended up getting a really bad ear infection that spread to his brain and we had to put him down. He got to where he couldnt stand up and antibiotics didn't kill the bacteria or whatever he had gotten.

We have also had in the news of children getting something similar from hot water shallow water pools in community pools in hot summer.


I no longer will let my dogs go in water in summer time when really hot.

Thank you for this. My dog won't go into our pool without me dragging him in, but loves rivers and lakes. I try to keep his head above water at all times. Supposedly, the water from the whitewater center is from wells, so I'm still taking him to the river. Lots of dogs and people are there. The center has a flat water fee for SUP and kayaks that are strictly in the river, not in the rafting water. I thought for sure that would close too, but it hasn't. And judging from the amount of people there today, it hasn't really affected people's opinion of safety. I'm watching my Ned for anything off, just in case.
 

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