The 14-year-old patient, Michael Riley Jr., is currently in a medically induced coma at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He is hospitalized with primary amebic meningeoencephalitis, or PAM, an infection caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri.
Naegleria fowleri is naturally found in warm freshwater, like lakes, rivers and hot springs, and is the only species of Naegleria that infects people.
To treat this brain-eating infection, the CDC has a supply of miltefosine, an investigational drug that is actually used to treat other parasitic diseases and breast cancer. Since 2009, the CDC has been able to provide the drug to physicians with permission from the Food and Drug Administration.
Although Michael’s physicians have obtained miltefosine from the CDC, experts warn that the treatment is not a “magic bullet.”
Jennifer Cope, MD, a CDC epidemiologist, told CBS News that miltefosine was used to treat two children with PAM in 2013, but one suffered brain damage. She attributes the survival of the patients to a “perfect storm” of factors — including, but not limited to the drug.
Michael is not the first person to develop PAM this year; an Oklahoma resident and a California resident died of the same type of infection this year.
To find out more about the brain-eating amoeba, click here.
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