Naegleria fowleri: Woodrow Bundy, two, dies from brain-eating amoeba - what are the symptoms and is it deadly?

A two-year-old boy has died from a brain-eating amoeba in Nevada, United States. The mother of Woodrow Bundy, Briana, confirmed he died from the Naegleria fowleri infection on Wednesday (July 19).

It is understood that the young boy was exposed to the deadly amoeba at a natural hot spring. His mother took to social media, where she said her son fought for seven days before sadly dying.

On Facebook, she said: "He is my hero and I will forever be grateful to God for giving me the goodest baby boy on earth, and I am grateful to know I will have that boy in heaven someday.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Naegleria fowleri is an ameba (single-celled living organism) that lives in soil and warm fresh water, such as lakes, rivers, and hot springs.

“It is commonly called the ’brain-eating ameba’ because it can cause a brain infection when water containing the ameba goes up the nose. Only about three people in the United States get infected each year, but these infections are usually fatal.”

The CDC say symptoms in stage one include severe frontal headache, fever, nausea and vomiting whereas stage two includes stiff neck, seizures, altered mental status, hallucinations and coma. Only 4 out of 157 people in the United States have survived infection from 1962 to 2022.