Teen Survives Brain-Eating Amoeba Infection
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
A Florida teen has survived a brain-eating amoeba infection, beating an attack that is usually fatal.
“Sebastian DeLeon, 16, was on vacation in Orlando when he started feeling sick. He had a headache on Friday that got worse by Saturday. His parents took him to a local hospital, where doctors found he was infected with an amoeba called Naegleria fowleri,” NBC News reported. “Sebastian is just one of four people in the United States who have survived a Naegleria infection in the past 50 years.”
Humberto Liriano, the doctor who treated DeLeon, emphasized the rare nature of DeLeon’s recovery.
"I have treated amoeba cases in the past and ... they've been fatal," Liriano said. "I had to tell [the patients’ family], just say their goodbyes. I had to tell them, 'tell him everything you want to tell your child because I don't know from the time I put him to sleep to the time I take the tube out will he wake up'.”
Doctors provided the patient with miltefosine at the Florida Hospital for Children. The drug is an anti-parasitic treatment.
“A pending application with the Food and Drug Administration means the medication is not yet stocked in most hospitals. For other Naegleria fowleri patients, the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] will send the drug by mail, but often it arrives too late,” The Washington Post reported.
Sebastian's mother, Brunilda Gonzalez, said, per the report: "We are so thankful that God has given us the miracle through this medical team and this hospital.”
The amoeba is a major concern for water utilities because it has sometimes struck through drinking water. The amoeba caused a death in Louisiana linked to a disinfected public drinking water system as well as a death in Arizona linked to a geothermal well-supplied drinking water system, according to the CDC.
“The largest amount of experience in managing Naegleria fowleri-contaminated water supplies is in Australia, which had multiple deaths in four states during the 1970s and 1980s that were linked to swimming or having other nasal exposure to contaminated drinking water,” the CDC reported.
The CDC makes the following recommendations for water utilities contending with this threat:
If Naegleria fowleri is suspected to be in a municipal drinking water system, the water utility may raise disinfectant levels and flush the system to get rid of Naegleria fowleri. There is normally a layer of scum or biofilm in pipes in water systems and homes. If Naegleria fowleri has colonized a water system, it might be found in the biofilm layer. It is possible that raising disinfectant levels could lead to some of that biofilm coming loose in the water system or a household and being flushed through the system or home.
To read more about combating brain-eating amoebas in water systems visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Disinfection Solutions Center.