Texas City Declares Disaster After Brain-Eating Amoeba Found in Tap Water

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Officials in the City of Lake Jackson Texas issued a disaster declaration this weekend in response to drinking water that was contaminated with a brain-eating amoeba. The city is currently under a “do not use” water advisory and has requested an emergency declaration from the state. In an emergency request to Gov.Greg Abbott, the city stated, “The City of Lake Jackson, County of Brazoria, Texas, is facing significant threats to life, health and property due to contaminated drinking water.”The impact of this threat is severe. The potential damages include sickness and death.”

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Mayor Bob Sipple wrote that the incident is of such severity and magnitude that the city cannot control the threat on its own. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Brazosport Water Authority late Friday of the potential contamination of its water supply by naegleria fowleri. Authorities initially warned communities not to use tap water under any circumstances except to flush the toilet, but on Saturday it lifted the warning for everywhere but Lake Jackson.

There are more than 27,000 Lake Jackson residents and is the site of the authority’s water treatment plant. A “do not use water” advisory was issued initially for eight surrounding communities in the greater Houston area, and there is now a boil water notice that remains in effect. The advisory was also canceled for two state prisons and Dow Chemical’s massive Freeport works.

The Advisory is said to remain in place until the authority’s water system has been thoroughly flushed and tests on water samples show that the system water is once again safe to use. The authority stated that it was still unclear how long it would be before the tap water is safe again. The authority’s water source is the Brazos River. Grocery store chain Kroger is said to help supply the city of Lake Jackson with water using their on-going advisory. According to a press release that was issued by Lake Jackson the city first became aware of the amoeba after it infected a 6-year-old boy.

The statement read, “On September 8th, 2020, the City of Lake Jackson was contacted by the Brazoria County Health Department about a 6-year-old boy that was hospitalized due to a rare and often fatal brain-eating ameba, Naegleria Fowleri. After his diagnosis, the family had indicated two possible water sources where he could have been exposed to the ameba; one being the Lake Jackson Civic Center Splash Pad and the other being a hose at his home.”

City officials went on and tested both potential sources, as well as others. The initial your test results came back negative for Naegleria Fowleri, but three of the 11 samples given to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for preliminary testing came back positive. The three positive results came back from water that was taken from the splash pad storage tank, the boys home hose, and a dead end-fire hydrant that was located downtown. The three samples were the only ones taken by the “filtration collection method,” which requires a large quantity of water to run.

Naegleria Fowleri is a free-living microscope amoeba, also referred to as a single-celled living organism, that is commonly found in soil and freshwater. According to the CDC, it usually infects people when the contaminated water enters the body through the nose, which then travels to the brain and can cause a rare disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis. Unfortunately, the infection is usually fatal and occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places such as rivers and lakes. In very rare instances, the infection may also occur when contaminated water from other sources, such as chlorinated swimming pool water or heat and contaminated tap water, enter through the nose. It’s already stated that Cory was detected in arthropods examples that were found in Lake Jackson.

According to the CDC, between 2019 and 2018, there were 34 positive infections reported in the United States. The majority of the cases, the people who were infected caught it by being in recreational water, but three were infected after performing nasal irrigation using contaminated tap water. One person was infected by contaminated tap water from a backyard slip and slide. Just earlier this month, a family of a teenage boy stated that he died from a brain-eating amoeba after they vacationed out of North Florida campground back in August. Stay safe, Texans.

Watch: Woman Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba Due to Using Tap Water in Neti Pot

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