Girl fights for life after contracting deadly brain-eating parasite
A 10-year-old girl is fighting for her life after contracting a rare brain-eating amoeba while swimming earlier this month.
Lily Avant, from the US state of Texas, was swimming with others over the Labor Day weekend when she came down with a fever, NBC 5 reports.
A family member said she went to the doctor that night as there were several viruses going around her school.
Doctors put her symptoms down to the same type of virus and she was sent home.
But a few days later Lily was still very ill and one morning she was completely unresponsive.
"She was brought into the emergency room on Tuesday when she woke up unresponsive. She was eyes open, she was there, but she wasn't speaking,” family member Wendy Scott told NBC.
Lily was transported to another hospital where it was confirmed Lily contracted Naegleria Fowleri, which is known as the “brain-eating amoeba or ameba”.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists Naegleria Fowleri as a parasite, which can cause a “rare and devastating infection of the brain”.
Naegleria Fowleri is contracted when people get contaminated water up their nose, but not from swallowing. Usually the parasite is found in warm freshwater – most often rivers and lakes.
Most cases of infection are fatal, according to the CDC, there are only five documented cases of people surviving. People generally die 18 days after symptoms start.
“We are very, very positive. We know God is control, he is the ultimate physician,” Ms Scott said.
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