Virginia health officials say a child has died of a brain infection from a microscopic bug, sometimes called a “brain-eating amoeba,” that lives in stagnant water.
State epidemiologist Dr. Keri Hall declined to name the child, but the victim’s mother identified him as 9-year-old Christian Alexander Strickland of Henrico County.
The boy died Aug. 5 and Hall received the autopsy results Friday confirming the cause of death as inflammation of the brain and its lining.
The Times-Dispatch reports it’s the first case of an amoeba death in Virginia since 1969.
State health officials issued an advisory Saturday, saying the amoeba proliferates in stagnant freshwater lakes and ponds during hot weather.
The victim’s mother, Amber Strickland, says the boy had attended a fishing day camp at several locations the week before he died.