A young man has died of encephalitis in Israel days after contracting the rare Naegleria fowleri amoeba, also called the "brain-eating amoeba," which penetrates the human brain through the nose, in a second such case registered in the country, the online newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the hospital where the patient had been treated.
The man might have contracted the infection while he was swimming in lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, in the north of the country, where water temperatures in summer reach 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), which is a favorable environment for the development of such microorganisms. However, the Israeli Health Ministry later took samples at the beach where the man had been bathing, but found no evidence of amoeba contamination of the water.
The first case of this infection in Israel was reported in August 2022, when a 36-year-old man also died of encephalitis caused by the same amoeba.
Naegleria fowleri is an amoeba that thrives in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, and hot springs, but can also be found in tap water, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amoeba could cause brain infection if the water containing it gets into the brain through the nose. Such brain infection is rare, but almost always fatal with the mortality rate of 97%, according to the US authority.