Brain-Eating Amoeba Shows Up in Louisiana Tap Water: Here’s What You Should Know

St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana is undergoing a 60-day chlorine “burn” of its water supply after Naegleria fowleri was detected.

A brain-eating amoeba that killed two people in two weeks ago has turned up in the water supply of a Louisiana county near New Orleans for the second time in two years.

The water supply of St. Bernard Parish (Louisiana counties are called parishes), which is located five miles outside of downtown New Orleans, is undergoing a 60-day chlorine “burn” to eradicate Naegleria fowleri, the Louisiana Department of Heath and Hospitals announced.

Officials say the burn is being conducted “out of caution,” adding that the tap water is safe to drink because you cannot become ill by drinking infected water. However, they warn that residents should avoid getting water in their noses because it can infect people via that route. It travels up the nose and into the brain, where it typically causes an infection of the lining around the brain (meningitis) and inflammation of the brain (encephalitis). Symptoms often include severe headaches, fever, and a stiff neck.

Infection with the amoeba is often deadly. A teenage boy died this month after developing an infection believed to have been caused by Naegleria fowleri that he came into contact with while swimming in a lake. Hunter A. Boutain, 14, died from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare infection of the brain caused by the amoeba, just 48 hours after he went swimming in Minnesota’s Lake Minnewaska. He w

Naegleria fowleri, the amoeba that killed 14-year-old Hunter Boutain. hospitalized after his swim and was unresponsive hours later,