Health & Medicine
Florida Boy With Rare Brain-Eating Amoeba Infection Loses His Battle
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Sep 02, 2013 09:58 AM EDT
Twelve-year-old Florida boy loses battle against a rare and deadly infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba on August 24.
Zachary Reyna, the 12-year-old boy who contracted the rare brain-eating disease a month back, was laid to rest this weekend. Nearly a 1,000 people attended his funeral. A public visitation and service was held at the LaBelle Middle School Gym that was attended by family members, friends and well wishers. He was laid to rest at a nearby site after the service, reports Associated Press.
Reyna contracted this parasitic disease in early August. He was infected with the brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria, while knee boarding with his friends in a ditch filled with water near his house.
Naelgeria Fowleri is mainly found in ponds, river and lakes. It attacks the central nervous system and enters the brain via the nerves.
According to CNN, he was admitted in a Miami hospital where the specialists treated him with an experimental anti-amoeba drug that was used to treat 12-year-old Kali Hardig in Arkansas, who is currently battling a rare and fatal form of parasitic meningitis that she contracted while swimming at an Arkansas water park. She is the third person to survive the deadly brain-eating parasite.
For a short time, the doctors believed that the antibiotics had won over the disease but it was too late as the parasite had already caused extensive damage to the boy's brain.
Following the incident, the Florida Department of Health issued a health warning. In the past five decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported only 130 cases of the disease in the U.S., making it an extremely rare disease
Click here to view the prayer and message board for Zachary.
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First Posted: Sep 02, 2013 09:58 AM EDT
Twelve-year-old Florida boy loses battle against a rare and deadly infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba on August 24.
Zachary Reyna, the 12-year-old boy who contracted the rare brain-eating disease a month back, was laid to rest this weekend. Nearly a 1,000 people attended his funeral. A public visitation and service was held at the LaBelle Middle School Gym that was attended by family members, friends and well wishers. He was laid to rest at a nearby site after the service, reports Associated Press.
Reyna contracted this parasitic disease in early August. He was infected with the brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria, while knee boarding with his friends in a ditch filled with water near his house.
Naelgeria Fowleri is mainly found in ponds, river and lakes. It attacks the central nervous system and enters the brain via the nerves.
According to CNN, he was admitted in a Miami hospital where the specialists treated him with an experimental anti-amoeba drug that was used to treat 12-year-old Kali Hardig in Arkansas, who is currently battling a rare and fatal form of parasitic meningitis that she contracted while swimming at an Arkansas water park. She is the third person to survive the deadly brain-eating parasite.
For a short time, the doctors believed that the antibiotics had won over the disease but it was too late as the parasite had already caused extensive damage to the boy's brain.
Following the incident, the Florida Department of Health issued a health warning. In the past five decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported only 130 cases of the disease in the U.S., making it an extremely rare disease
Click here to view the prayer and message board for Zachary.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone