Beware this rare yet deadly danger lurking in freshwater lakes

It sounds like something out of a horror movie: A young child goes swimming in a Minnesota lake. The water is warm and inviting; it’s the height of summer. At some point, perhaps while splashing around or doing cannonballs off the dock, a tiny amount of water goes up the child’s nose. A week later, he’s dead. In recent years, at least two children suffered that horrific fate after swimming in Stillwater’s popular Lily Lake. The culprit? Naegleria fowleri– an amoeba that lives in freshwater lakes and rivers. How the nightmarish illness unfolds Human brain cells aren’t typically on the amoeba’s menu. But in rare cases – for reasons not well understood – the amoeba travels up the nose of an unlucky human and ends up in their brain, where it feasts on neurons. The infection starts out with flu-like symptoms – headache, nausea, vomiting, fever, lethargy – but quickly progresses as the victim’s condition…

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