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Ruston girl dies after brain-eating amoeba infection
WDSU • • health
Key Points:
- An 8-year-old girl from Ruston, Louisiana, Lillian Smart, died from an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, a rare brain-eating amoeba, likely contracted during a swim at Lake Claiborne.
- Naegleria fowleri infections are extremely rare but almost always fatal, occurring when contaminated warm freshwater enters the nose and reaches the brain.
- The Louisiana Department of Health advises caution when swimming in warm freshwater during extended heat periods and recommends using nose clips or avoiding submersion to reduce infection risk.
- Symptoms of the infection include severe headache, fever, nausea, and progress rapidly to stiff neck, seizures, coma, and death, typically appearing within 1 to 12 days after exposure.
- From 1937 to 2025, there have been 180 known cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in the U.S., with only three cases reported in Louisiana during that time.
