North Carolina teen critically ill from rare brain-eating amoeba in freshwater

A teenager in central North Carolina lies critically ill after contracting Naegleria fowleri, a rare brain-eating amoeba that enters the body through the nose during ordinary moments of summer joy — a dive, a jump, a splash in warm freshwater. The infection, which causes a disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, moves with a swiftness that outpaces nearly every treatment, typically claiming a life within five days of the first symptom. This case arrives in the shadow of another — an eight-year-old girl in Louisiana who died from the same organism just weeks ago — reminding us that n