An Oklahoma man died Wednesday night after contracting a deadly brain eating amoeba while swimming. The Oklahoma Department of Health reported that a man contracted primary amoeba meningoencephalitis (PAM), also known as the Naegleria fowleri amoeba, after swimming in Lake Murray last week, according to FOX 31 Denver.
Officials say that the amoeba is present in most lakes, ponds and rivers, but multiply most rapidly in warm, stagnant water. The amoeba travels up the nose and to the brain where it destroys the brain tissue.
Seven cases of PAM have been recorded in Oklahoma since 1998 and while the disease is rare, it is also usually deadly to those infected, according to Arkansas Online.
Experts advise that the public should use plugs when submerging underwater, avoid stagnant water; cloudy water; water with a "bad smell," adhere to "do not swim" areas and avoid swallowing water from rivers, lakes, streams, or stock ponds, according to KFOR.com
PAM symptoms include high fever, headache, nausea and vomiting. Symptoms can progress to include stiff neck, seizures, hallucinations and coma.
Though 75 percent of documented infections happen to men, the low infection rate makes it a difficult disease to study, so there is no data to establish what makes a male person more susceptible to the disease, according to the CDC.
