Outrageously High Levels Of Brain-Eating Amoeba Found At Water Park

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the water samples taken from the U.S. National Whitewater Center contained high levels of brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri which was responsible for the death of an Ohio teen.

According to CNN, the high levels of Naegleria fowleri in the water were probably caused by the failure of the water sanitation system. The CDC also said that all 11 samples from the water park tested positive for the suspected deadly organism. Other samples from the surrounding Catawba River tested negative, even though the amoeba was found in one sample of riverbank sediment.

"Our findings here are significant," said Dr. Jennifer Cope, an infectious disease physician at the CDC. "We saw multiple positive samples at levels we've not previously seen in environmental samples."

The amoeba were believed to grow in such concentrations because of the amount of dirt and debris in the water, which turns the water cloudy and murky. It also disrupts the effectiveness of the sanitation process, said Cope.

"When you add chlorine to water like that the chlorine reacts with all that debris and is automatically consumed," explained Cope. "It is no longer present to inactivate a pathogen like Naegleria," wtvr.com reported. Cope said the same is true about the UV light sanitation system at the water park. "If you're passing turbid water through UV light, the rays cannot inactivate pathogens," she added.

According to Yahoo News, Lauren Seitz, 18, from Westerville, Ohio died on June 19 just three weeks after graduating from high school. The incident happened about a week after she returned from a white water rafting trip on at the National Whitewater Center just outside Charlotte, North Carolina.

Even though the deadly amoeba loves warm water environment like lakes and rivers, the infection can only happen when water is forced up the nose. The reason is the bacteria will have an access to travel up to the brain. Cope said they believe that was probably what happened to Seitz's raft capsized on the rapids, since it was the only exposure she had before her death.