ORLANDO, Fla. – A deadly case of brain-eating amoeba in South Carolina is bringing renewed national attention to a test developed right here in Central Florida.
The patient, a young boy, died earlier this week after swimming in a freshwater lake and being exposed to Naegleria fowleri, a rare amoeba that attacks the brain.
It’s the second confirmed case in the U.S. this year. The other case involved a woman in Texas who was using tap water with a sinus rinse, reports CBS News.
Though the infection is extremely rare, just 164 cases reported in the U.S. over the last 60 years, it’s almost always fatal. According to Dr. Jose Alexander, an infectious disease specialist at AdventHealth, the survival rate is less than 3%.
Of the few survival cases is Sebastian Deleon, who caught the amoeba while swimming in a pond near his Florida home in 2016.
According to the Florida Department of Health, 38 cases were documented in the state between 1962 and 2020, and Deleon’s is the only case in that time period to have survived.
[WATCH: Survivor of brain-eating amoeba shares his story]
“So we see that… it’s a very uncommon disease,” Dr. Alexander told News 6. “But it becomes significant because even though it’s rare, it has a high mortality. Close to 97% of people die.”
That urgency is what prompted Dr. Alexander and his team at AdventHealth to develop a rapid diagnostic test.
News 6 first told you about the test in 2022.
[FROM 2022: AdventHealth unveils new test to detect brain-eating amoebas more quickly]
The test uses a sample of spinal fluid and can detect the presence of the amoeba in as little as three to five hours, giving doctors a critical head start in starting treatment.
“The idea is to provide the clinician a rapid diagnostic… and increase the probability for the patient to be put on the right treatment faster,” Alexander said.
Although the amoeba is more common during the summer, Alexander says warming temperatures are extending the risk year-round, especially in Florida.
“So for people from Central Florida, we are getting hotter and hotter summers… and winters are getting shorter,” he said. “That means the amoeba will be active longer… I think it’s important to understand this isn’t just a summer issue anymore.”
Doctors recommend families avoid getting water up the nose while swimming in lakes or ponds, and to be aware of early symptoms, including severe headache, fever and confusion, especially after recent freshwater exposure.