September 27, 2020 – In Breaking News – The New York Times
The governor of Texas issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for a Gulf Coast county where a 6-year-old boy died after being infected by a brain-eating amoeba and the organism was found in the water supply.
In early September, Brazoria County health officials alerted the city of Lake Jackson, Texas, about 56 miles south of Houston, about a boy who was hospitalized with the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.
(Concerns were raised after a 6-year-old boy died from the amoeba earlier this month. Courtesy of ABC News and YouTube. Posted on Sep 27, 2020.)
The organism is typically found in warm freshwater lakes and rivers, and people are exposed when it enters the body through the nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It travels up the nose to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue.
The boy’s family believed he had been exposed to the single-celled organism from a water hose at his home or from a city splash pad, where water spurts up from the ground, city officials said in a news release.
The city closed the splash pad, and multiple tests were conducted with help from the C.D.C. and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Three of the 11 samples collected tested “preliminary positive.” Those samples were from a “dead end fire hydrant downtown,” a “splash pad storage tank” and the boy’s “home hose bib,” according to the city.
(The brain-eating amoeba sounds scary so we wanted to break down what exactly that means. Courtesy of ABC13 Houston and YouTube. Posted on Sep 26, 2020.)
On Friday evening, the Brazosport Water Authority released a “do not use” water advisory for eight Texas cities, under direction from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
By Saturday, the warning was lifted in all cities — except for Lake Jackson — and Mayor Bob Sipple of Lake Jackson issued a disaster declaration.
“The impact of this threat is severe,” the mayor said in an emergency request to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.
“The potential damages include: sickness and death.”
Today I issued a disaster declaration in Brazoria Co. after a deadly amoeba was found in Lake Jackson, Texas.
More announcements on this soon.https://t.co/Fzr1vup9pw via @ABC13Houston
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 28, 2020
Continue reading… Brain-Eating Amoeba Found in Lake Jackson, Texas, Water Supply
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