An 8-year-old Louisiana girl recently died from a brain-eating amoeba after swimming. Now, families are left wondering if this could happen to their loved ones.
Lillian Smart of Ruston, Louisiana, died Aug. 22, her family said in a public Facebook post on the "Love for Lillian" page, writing the "injuries to her brain were too severe for her little body to recover from."
The Louisiana Department of Health reported Aug. 19 it had confirmed a case of Naegleria fowleri, often referred to as a brain-eating amoeba, that was likely contracted while swimming in Lake Claiborne. It is almost always fatal.
Here's what to know about the amoeba and how to protect yourself.
Where is Naegleria fowleri found?
Naegleria fowleri is commonly found in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals and ponds
throughout the U.S. It is not found in salt water or in properly maintained and chlorinated pools.
The amoeba is often referred to as brain-eating because it can cause a deadly infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, which destroys brain tissue.
How do you contract a brain-eating amoeba?
Someone can develop primary amebic meningoencephalitis when water containing the amoeba rushes up the nose and reaches the brain. Naegleria fowleri can't infect people if swallowed and isn't spread from person to person.
"Naegleria fowleri is a harmless pond dweller – unless it ends up in the nose of a human swimmer," according to a recent research article published in Science. "Once inside, the amoeba can crawl along nerve fibers in the nasal cavity and through little openings in the skull until it reaches the brain."
It's been unclear why these otherwise harmless organisms, which normally feed on bacteria, exhibit this behavior − but it may have something to do with them loving to crawl into narrow spaces in an effort to find food.
"It’s really just an unfortunate circumstance when the amoebae get into your upper sinuses," Katrina Velle, a cell biologist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, told Science. "They’re just doing what they’ve evolved to do − looking for nooks and crannies where their bacteria should be."
How common is this type of infection?
The brain-eating amoeba usually kills fewer than 10 Americans each year. In particular, only four survivors have been identified out of 167 instances that have been recorded in the U.S. between 1962 and 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In July 2025, a boy also died from the brain-eating amoeba after swimming in a South Carolina lake.
How can you protect yourself from brain-eating amoebas?
Though it may not be possible to totally avoid water activities during the summer, there are some ways to reduce your risk of contracting the deadly infection, including:
- Wearing a nose clip or holding your nose before diving or jumping into freshwater, to prevent water going up your nose.
- Avoid digging in shallow water as this is where amoebas are more likely to live.
- Always keep your head above water in hot springs.
Contributing: Janet Loehrke, Christopher Cann and George Petras, USA TODAY; Greg Hilburn, Julie Garisto, T. Sudore and C.A. Bridge, USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After 8-year-old died of brain-eating amoeba, here's who is most at risk
