{"id":880425,"date":"2026-09-02T07:08:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T07:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880425\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T07:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T07:08:52","slug":"teenager-dies-after-contracting-illness-caused-by-brain-eating-amoeba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880425\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager dies after contracting illness caused by \u2018brain-eating\u2019 amoeba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">RALEIGH, N.C. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/09\/01\/north-carolina-teen-dies-after-contracting-brain-eating-amoeba\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/09\/01\/north-carolina-teen-dies-after-contracting-brain-eating-amoeba\/\">WBTV<\/a>\/Gray News) &#8211; A North Carolina teen who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/08\/28\/teen-critically-ill-infected-with-brain-eating-amoeba-health-department-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/08\/28\/teen-critically-ill-infected-with-brain-eating-amoeba-health-department-says\/\">was critically ill<\/a> from an infection caused by a \u201cbrain-eating\u201d amoeba has died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2026\/08\/27\/ncdhhs-reports-rare-brain-infection-pediatric-case-central-nc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2026\/08\/27\/ncdhhs-reports-rare-brain-infection-pediatric-case-central-nc\">North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services<\/a>, the illness was caused by the warm-freshwater amoeba <a href=\"https:\/\/epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov\/cd\/diseases\/pam.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov\/cd\/diseases\/pam.html\">Naegleria fowleri<\/a>, an organism that thrives in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/naegleria\/about\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/naegleria\/about\/index.html\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> notes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Last week, health officials first shared the teen\u2019s diagnosis, reporting that the teenager was in critical condition from an infection caused by the amoeba. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The teen, who health officials said was not immediately identified to protect the family\u2019s privacy, died on Monday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cOur hearts go out to this teen\u2019s family, friends, and loved ones as they navigate this difficult time,\u201d North Carolina epidemiologist Zack Moore said. \u201cWhile these infections are very rare, this is an important reminder that this amoeba is present in our state and across the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials are still investigating where the teen contracted the infection. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WBTV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. (WBTV\/Gray News) &#8211; A North Carolina teen who was critically ill from an infection caused by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[305480,305481,305483,305486,305487,49,48,84,305492,305488,305489,305493,305494,305495,305485,305497,305498,305496,305482,305490,305484,305491],"class_list":["post-880425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-brain-eating-amoeba-death","tag-brain-eating-amoeba-deaths","tag-brain-eating-amoeba-north-carolina-deaths","tag-brain-eating-amoeba-north-carolina-water","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-how-can-you-get-naegleria-fowleri","tag-naegleria-fowleri","tag-naegleria-fowleri-deaths","tag-naegleria-fowleri-north-carolina","tag-naegleria-fowleri-north-carolina-deaths","tag-north-carolina-epidemiologist-zack-moore","tag-teen-dies-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-teenager-dies-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-teenager-dies-brain-eating-amoeba-north-carolina","tag-teenager-dies-contracting-illness-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-what-is-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-what-is-naegleria-fowleri","tag-where-can-you-get-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-where-can-you-get-naegleria-fowleri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}