All articles tagged with #lake claiborne
An eight-year-old girl from Ruston, Louisiana died from a Naegleria fowleri infection—an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba likely contracted during a swim in Lake Claiborne. The state confirmed the infection and noted such cases are almost always fatal; experts say warm freshwater and climate change may increase exposure risks.
A Louisiana resident is hospitalized after contracting primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare brain infection caused by the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri, from swimming in Lake Claiborne. PAM has a about a 97% fatality rate with only four U.S. survivors since 1937. Health officials warn that warm freshwater lakes and inadequately chlorinated pools can harbor the amoeba, and prevention focuses on nose protection when in such waters; there is currently no reliable method to reduce amoebas in water.
Louisiana health officials confirmed a case of Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, in a resident who likely contracted it while swimming in Lake Claiborne. The infection is extremely rare and almost always fatal, with symptoms typically starting about five days after exposure and progressing from headache and fever to stiff neck, seizures, and coma. It is not transmitted person-to-person, and there is no routine environmental test for the amoeba. Nationally, about 180 cases have been recorded since 1937–2025, with past Louisiana fatalities in 2011 and 2013; prevention focuses on reducing water entering the nose in warm freshwater during summer.