Hospital says child infected with ‘brain-eating’ amoeba still in serious condition

Ziv Medical Center says the 10-year-old child infected with the “brain-eating” amoeba is still in serious condition.

The otherwise healthy boy contracted Naegleria fowleri last week at Gai Beach water park in Tiberias.

This is the same location where a 25-year-old man contracted the disease and died in early July.

The Health Ministry ordered the park closed after the discovery of the second case.

Environmental health inspectors had examined the beach after the first case was reported, but no initial evidence of amoeba contamination was found.

The mortality rate from encephalitis, an infection of the brain, caused by the amoeba is extremely high, and while infection is extremely rare, it is often fatal.

In August 2022, a 36-year-old man died of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection caused by the same amoeba.

These are the only three recorded cases in Israel. Only some 400 cases have ever been diagnosed worldwide.