CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. — A patient in South Carolina has tested positive for Naegleria fowleri, the so-called "brain-eating amoeba," The Centers for Disease Control confirmed in a statement.
Health officials think the patient may have been exposed during a July 24 swim at Martin's Landing in the Edisto River, which runs through the southeast portion of the state through the Ernest F. Hollings Ace Basin National Wildlife park.
The amoeba occurs naturally and is "all around us and is present in many warm water lakes, rivers and streams, but infection in humans is very rare," Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist, told WISTV.
It's so rare, in fact, that there have been less than 40 cases in the past 10 years in the United States, Bell said. While rare, it is extremely deadly. In August 2015, a girl died days after a trip to Oklahoma's Lake Murray.
Health officials say the free-living organism travels up the nose and into the brain. Symptoms typically start one to nine days after it is contracted.
"They start off usually with a high fever then nausea and vomiting, and then later develop altered mental status and even coma," according to Joli Stone, an epidemiologist.
WISTV reports that a Florida-based company Profounda rushed drug used to fight the amoeba overnight to the Charleston hospital.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control issued the following statement: