{"id":616477,"date":"2026-09-06T18:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616477\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:08:14","slug":"nine-year-old-boy-hospitalized-with-brain-eating-amoeba-health-ministry-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616477\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine-year-old Boy Hospitalized With Brain-eating Amoeba, Health Ministry Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nine-year-old boy is hospitalized in serious condition with a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba. A preliminary epidemiological investigation found that he had swum in the Sea of Galilee a week before he was hospitalized. <\/p>\n

The boy is sedated and on a ventilator at Rambam Medical Center after developing a brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic amoeba found primarily in warm freshwater. <\/p>\n

Only about 500 cases of infection have been documented worldwide, according to the Health Ministry, but the disease has a fatality rate of about 97 percent.<\/p>\n

Three cases have been recorded in Israel in recent years. In July 2024, a 26-year-old man died and a 10-year-old boy was left in a vegetative state after exposure to the amoeba<\/a> at a water park near the Sea of Galilee. In 2022, a resident of northern Israel died after becoming infected in a freshwater reservoir in the north.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/p>\n

The amoeba can cause infection when contaminated water enters the nose, allowing it to travel to the brain and cause a severe infection of the central nervous system. The disease cannot be contracted by drinking contaminated water and does not spread from person to person.<\/p>\n

The Health Ministry said people swimming in warm freshwater should minimize the amount of water entering their noses, particularly when jumping, diving or submerging their heads. Swimmers can hold their noses closed or use nose clips and should avoid digging into or disturbing sediment in shallow water, where concentrations of the amoeba may be higher.<\/p>\n

The ministry advised people who develop fever, a severe headache, nausea or vomiting after swimming in warm freshwater to seek medical attention and tell doctors about their exposure to the water. A stiff neck, confusion, unusual drowsiness or changes in consciousness require urgent medical attention, it said.<\/p>\n

While the disease is extremely rare, the ministry warned that a patient’s condition can deteriorate rapidly.<\/p>\n

Haaretz Podcast | Behind the scenes at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nine-year-old boy is hospitalized in serious condition with a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[33970,40638,103,61,60,98082,261607],"class_list":["post-616477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health-body","tag-environment-nature","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-health","tag-sea-of-galilee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}