Oviedo boy dies of amoeba infection, Deland boy still critical

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http://www.naplesnews.com/02/07/florida/d806346a.htm

Oviedo boy dies of amoeba infection, Deland boy still critical

Saturday, July 27, 2002

Associated Press

ORLANDO - A central Florida boy died Friday from a rare amebic brain

infection he contracted while swimming in a nearby lake.

The Oviedo boy, 12, was classified as brain dead around 1 p.m. Friday at

Florida Hospital-Orlando, said spokeswoman Heckman. The boy's family

did not want his name released yet.

The boy had a rare brain infection, primary amebic meningoencephalitis, that

is contracted from amoebas. He had inhaled some of the microscopic

one-celled organisms while he swam in the Conway chain of lakes northeast of

Orlando, hospital officials said.

The infection is often fatal but is not contagious, officials said.

A 15-year-old boy in the same hospital remained in critical condition Friday

with a bacterial infection he got while swimming in nearby lakes.

The unidentified boy from DeLand was swimming Saturday in Lake Talmadge,

near Orlando, when a type of bacteria called chromobacterium violaceum

entered his body through a cut on his leg, officials said.

Although the bacteria infecting the DeLand boy is common in warm freshwater

lakes, only 25 to 30 cases of infection have ever been reported in the

United States, said Dr. Duma of Halifax Medical Center. It is fatal

in about 60 percent of cases, he said.

Health officials warned that warm bodies of water are brimming with

organisms in the summer and said people should swim in large freshwater

springs, swimming pools or the ocean.

The Naegleria amoeba, which has been detected in 46 percent of Florida

lakes, lives in the soils on the bottoms of freshwater lakes, rivers and hot

springs. It also can be found in unchlorinated swimming pools.