Eight-year-old dies after contracting rare brain-eating amoeba in Louisiana
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- Lillian Smart, an 8-year-old from Ruston, Louisiana, died Saturday—one day after her birthday—after contracting Naegleria fowleri from a swim in Lake Claiborne, her family announced on the "Love for Lillian" Facebook page.
- Louisiana's Department of Health confirmed on August 19 that a state resident had been infected, with exposure most likely occurring while swimming in Lake Claiborne in Claiborne Parish.
- Lillian had been hospitalized since August 15, and more than two dozen businesses in Ruston donated a portion of sales to the Smart family during the crisis.
- Naegleria fowleri infections are almost always fatal, with only about 180 cases identified in the US since 1937, according to the CDC.
- The amoeba flourishes in warm freshwater and is not found in salt water or properly chlorinated pools; infection occurs only when contaminated water enters the nose, not by swallowing or person-to-person contact.
- Experts cited in coverage say the climate crisis is driving Naegleria fowleri to appear in parts of the US—the north and west—where it isn't typical.
Why it matters: With only about 180 confirmed US cases since 1937 and a near-universal fatality rate, each death is rare but consequential—and experts say warming waters are expanding the amoeba's geographic reach into northern and western states, widening the population of at-risk swimmers.
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