In a tragic turn of events, a boy died after getting infected with a brain-eating amoeba from a water feature at a public park in Texas.After learning of the child's illness, health officials began investigating and closed all of the city's public splash pads. City officials said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the presence of the ameba in water samples from the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad. City officials say records from two of the four splash pads — at Don Misenhimer Park and the Beacon Recreation Center — show Parks and Recreation employees didn't consistently record, or in some cases did not conduct, the water quality testing that's required prior to the facilities opening each day.
They have "determined two possible sources for the child's exposure" to water contaminated with brain-eating amoeba - Naegleria fowleri, the Tarrant County Public Health Department said in a statement. Water containing the pathogen came either from water at the family's home in Tarrant County, or from the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad in Arlington. On September 5, public health officials were notified of a child's hospitalisation due to a rare infection. Authorities then closed all parks with splash pads to carry out an investigation. Six days after being admitted to hospital, the unidentified child died. The CDC says Naegleria fowleri infections are rare, with just 34 reported in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. People are infected when water containing the ameba enters the body through the nose, usually when people go swimming or diving in lakes and rivers. A similar case last month involved the tragic death of a seven-year-old after developing the same rare condition.