Brain-eating amoeba kills 11-year-old girl

On Friday evening, an 11-year-old girl from Beaufort, S.C., died after becoming infected with brain-eating amoeba while swimming in the Edisto River in Charleston County, according to The Beaufort Gazette.

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Hannah Collins received treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina Health in Charleston. On a rush order, a drug courier drove a medication that once saved the life of a girl infected with brain-eating amoeba from Orlando, Fla., to the South Carolina hospital. The drug, miltefosine, is manufactured by the drug company Profunda. In a statement, the girl’s family thanked Todd MacLaughlan, Profunda’s CEO, for expeditiously shipping the drug to South Carolina.

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Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, lives in warm freshwater and causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis, which is nearly always fatal.

Learn more about Naegleria fowleri here.

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