UPDATED 9/28: A new report on the amoeba has added additional details regarding the situation in Texas.
Per CBS News, the death of 6-year-old Josiah McIntyre spurred an investigation that directly resulted in the discovery of the brain-eating amoeba in a Houston-area city’s water. McIntyre, who died Sept. 8, is said to have contracted naegleria fowleri either from a hose at home or at the Lake Jackson splashpad.
Of the 11 sample tests, three indicated preliminary positive results. One of those, according to the report, was from "a hose bib at the boy's home."
See original story below.
Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, was found in the water supply of Brazosport Water Authority customers in Texas on Friday evening, forcing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to issue a water advisory and tell those customers to not to use any of their water.
According to CNN, the Do Not Use Water Advisory was initially issued for residents of Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute, and Rosenberg, Texas, and also for the Dow Chemical plant in Freeport and the Clemens and Wayne Scott Texas Department of Criminal Justice corrections facilities. The warning has since been lifted for all cities listed except for Lake Jackson residents.
In fact, Lake Jackson officials have now issued a disaster declaration and residents are still being urged to not use their water until the Brazosport Water Authority has completed a thorough flush of its water system. On Sept. 8, a six-year-old boy was hospitalized with the amoeba, which is how state health officials became aware of the problem. A statement from Lake Jackson confirmed that the boy's problem was traced back to either a water fountain "splash pad" in front of the Lake Jackson Civic Center, or through water emitted from a hose at the boy's home.
The CDC then got involved and tested the water supply immediately, sending the results to the TCEQ. The Texas agency then required that the Brazosport Water Authority issue the Do Not Use water advisory. Residents have since been receiving a free case of water from the city in the interim.
According to the CDC, the Naegleria fowleri is rare and fatal. Out of the 145 people who were infected from 1962 to 2018, only four survived.
