On Friday evening, an 11-year-old girl from Beaufort, S.C., died after becoming infected with brain-eating amoeba while swimming in the Edisto River in Charleston County, according to The Beaufort Gazette.
Hannah Collins received treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina Health in Charleston. On a rush order, a drug courier drove a medication that once saved the life of a girl infected with brain-eating amoeba from Orlando, Fla., to the South Carolina hospital. The drug, miltefosine, is manufactured by the drug company Profunda. In a statement, the girl's family thanked Todd MacLaughlan, Profunda's CEO, for expeditiously shipping the drug to South Carolina.
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Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, lives in warm freshwater and causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis, which is nearly always fatal.
Learn more about Naegleria fowleri here.
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