2-year-old Nevada boy dies from brain-eating amoeba likely contracted at natural hot spring

A 2-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba infection this week, according to the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) and a Facebook post from the child’s mother.

According to the DPBH release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that Naegleria fowleri, also known as a brain-eating amoeba, was the cause of the boy’s illness and corresponding death.

State investigators believe the boy might have been exposed to the amoeba at Ash Springs, a natural hot spring on federal land in Lincoln County, the release said.

“Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic single-celled living ameba that occurs naturally in the environment. This ameba can cause a very serious rare infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) that destroys brain tissue and is almost always fatal,” the DPBH release noted.