Brain-Eating Amoeba Linked to Three Deaths

A brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria Fowleri has been linked to three deaths this summer, according to reports.

Sixteen-year-old Courtney Nash, who died from a brain infection last week after going for a swim in a Florida river, reportedly is the third person to die after being exposed to the waterborne amoeba Naegleria fowleri, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Other news reports have stated that one person in Louisiana and another in Virginia died from the same deadly amoeba. The amoebas, which swim up the nose and enter the brain, live in freshwater around the world.

The mother of the 9-year-old Virginia boy said her son went to a fishing day camp the week before he died, TIME reported.

The Virginia Department of Health doesn't know - and may never know - which body of water the child got infected, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

"In all likelihood, we're never going to pinpoint exactly where this amoeba was acquired," said Dr. Keri Hall, the state epidemiologist, told the Virginia paper.