Missouri state health officials confirm a rare case of a “brain-eating” infection that happens when water containing an ameba enters the body through the nose from freshwater sources.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says fewer than ten people a year nationwide get this brain infection, which is known as PAM. DHSS says the Missouri patient is currently being treated at an unnamed hospital’s intensive care unit and that no additional suspected cases of PAM are being investigated in Missouri.
State health officials also say that while not confirmed, preliminary information implies the patient may have been water skiing at Lake of the Ozarks days before becoming ill. DHSS says this infection cannot be spread from one person to the other and cannot be contracted by swallowing contaminated water.