Brain-eating amoeba-linked death highlights new climate risk
The death of a Nevada boy who contracted brain-eating amoeba after swimming in Lake Mead this fall is highlighting how climate change can fuel the spread of the usually rare infection. Naegleria fowleri, known colloquially as a brain-eating amoeba, lives in warm, fresh water and can enter the human body through the nose, traveling up to the brain, where it starts destroying tissue, causing an infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis. Climate change-induced warming means the amoeba can now be present in areas of the country where it didn’t used to be, like in the north and west. It’s also extending the amoeba’s life span past the summer months.