Water park visitor died after ‘brain-eating’ amoeba swam up his nose

A water park visitor died from a brain-eating amoeba that swam up his nose at a water park.

Health officials in Guilford County, North Carolina confirmed that Eddie Gray died from complications related to Naegleria fowleri, a single-celled amoeba that entered his body at Fantasy Lake water park on July 12.

Naegleria fowleri, known as the ‘brain-eating amoeba,’ is commonly found in freshwater. It is harmless when swallowed, but can be deadly when ingested nasally, according to WRAL.

Victims may then develop primary amebic menigeoncephalitis, which Gray contracted. The infection commonly begins with severe headaches, nausea, fever, and vomiting before escalating to seizures, stiff neck, and coma, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Gray died on July 22 – less than two weeks after he went swimming at Fantasy lake with his mission group from Sedge Garden United Methodist Church in Kernersville.

In the wake of Gray’s death, county officials ordered Fantasy Lake to put up public warnings for swimmers to use precautions, but did not make the water park close down.

Interim Director of the Cumberland County Health Department Dwayne Holder said: ‘Swimming in and of itself is not so much of a concern.’

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‘Now, diving, jumping in from heights and maybe some of the forceful activity of submerging, those are situations I would make sure I had nose clips, nose plugs, or I’d pinch my nose if I knew I was going to be forcibly entering the water.

Holder said it was safe to swim because Naegleria fowleri, and other similar bacteria, are present in nearly all bodies of fresh water.

Infections from the brain-eating amoeba are rare, however, and only 145 known infections have been documented since 1962, according to the Centers for Disease Control.