Hospital's team effort helps to save boy from deadly amoebic infection.

Abstract

The call on Sunday, August 7, was one the pharmacy department at Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando had been preparing for: an urgent request for help in treating a deadly amoebic infection. “All of the right things happened,” said pharmacy director Michael Kalita, reflecting on the survival of 16-year-old Sebastian DeLeon from infection with the free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri. ... DeLeon is reportedly the fourth person in the United States to survive N. fowleri infection. The amoeba lives in fresh water and soil and normally feeds on bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people become infected typically when they swim or dive in a lake, river, or other warm body of fresh water and N. fowleri–contaminated water enters their nose. People have also become infected from using N. fowleri–contaminated tap water for nasal irrigation. After N. fowleri enters a person’s nose, the amoeba penetrates the nasal mucous membrane and moves to the brain by way of the olfactory nerves.