12-Year-Old Boy Fights Off Brain-Eating Amoeba

A 12-year-old Florida boy is in critical condition after contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba reportedly playing in a channel near his home.

Identified as Zachary Reyna, the boy was taken to Miami Children's Hospital after a week of worsening flu-like symptoms, according to News Press.

The local news outlet further reports that two other boys playing with Reyna at the time did not get sick.

The organism behind the infection, called Naegleria fowleri, thrives in warm freshwater and can enter the nose and travel to the brain, resulting in primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Though rare, PAM is almost always deadly with only one out of 128 reported cases in the United States between 1962 and 2012 surviving the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The news of Reyna's case comes just weeks after Kali Hardig, 12, from Arkansas contracted the amoeba, likely while swimming in a sandy-bottom lake near her home.

Symptoms of PAM include seizures, confusion, hallucinations and a stiff neck. On average, infected individuals die within five days from the start of symptoms. Hardig, however, is not only alive some two weeks later but, according to KATV, was recently moved from from the intensive care unit into the floor unit at the hospital where she is staying.

In regards to Reyna's diagnosis, Glades County health department spokeswoman Brenda Barnes called it a "very rare occurrence," according to ABC News. "This amoeba is out there. It could be anywhere in any warm, fresh water."

Currently, the hospital is not releasing any information regarding the boy's condition; however, a Facebook page dedicated to Reyna's plight says he is still alive and fighting.

To avoid contracting PAM, the CDC encourages those swimming in fresh water to either hold their nose or keep their head above water as well as avoiding stirring up sediment. Only 31 cases were reported in the United States between 2003 and 2012, three of which were the result of performing nasal irrigation using contaminated tap water.