Click here for updates on this story
CLAIBORNE PARISH, La. (WDSU) — A Louisiana resident has contracted a brain-eating amoeba.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, the resident contracted a Naegleria fowleri infection, also known as a brain-eating amoeba, likely while swimming in Lake Claiborne in Claiborne Parish.
Naegleria fowleri is commonly found in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals, and ponds throughout the United States.
It can cause a brain infection after water containing the amoeba rushes up the nose and enters the brain, according to health officials.
The infection is extremely rare, but nearly always fatal.
Naegleria fowleri cannot infect people if swallowed and is not spread from person to person. The amoeba is not found in salt water or in properly maintained and chlorinated pools.
According to LDH, symptoms of Naegleria fowleri infection typically start with severe headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting, and progress to stiff neck, seizures, and coma that can lead to death.
Symptoms usually begin about five days after infection but can start within one to 12 days.
LDH provided the following safety tips for swimming in fresh water across the state:
Use caution when engaging in water-related activities in warm freshwater during periods of extended extreme heat. Naegleria fowleri usually occurs when temperatures increase for prolonged periods, resulting in higher water temperatures and lower water levels.
Swimmers can reduce their risk by keeping their heads out of the water and using nose clips or plugging their noses when going underwater.
Avoid submersing your head in hot springs and other untreated fresh thermal water.
Avoid digging in or stirring up the sediment while taking part in water-related activities in shallow, warm freshwater areas.
Naegleria fowleri infections are rare, with only 180 known cases of PAM in the U.S. (between zero and eight cases annually) from 1937 through 2025. Louisiana had three Naegleria fowleri cases during that time period.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.