A Missouri resident died this week from a brain-eating amoeba infection, possibly picked up when the patient was water-skiing on the Lake of the Ozarks, state health officials said.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said the patient died in a St. Louis hospital on Tuesday. Officials did not provide the victim’s name or other identifying information.
Missouri health officials said the patient may have gone water-skiing on the Lake of the Ozarks in the days leading to the onset of their sickness.
The amoeba, scientific name Naegleria fowleri, grows in warm freshwater sources such as lakes and gets into the brain through the nose. Once in the brain, the amoeba causes the condition primary amebic meningoencephalitis. Early symptoms include fever, headache, nausea and vomiting, and then the infection progresses to hallucinations, confusion, lack of attention to other people and one’s surroundings, loss of balance and stiff neck, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Most patients die within one to 18 days of infection, with most cases ending in a coma and death after five days, the CDC said. Between 1962 and 2024, 167 cases of the infection were reported across the U.S., with four patients surviving.
Missouri health officials recommend that people swimming in warm freshwater keep their heads above the water, keep their noses shut and don’t stir up the sediment where the amoeba lives. Or they should avoid the water when the temperature is high.
