The boy, named Hunter Boutain, is in critical condition

Jul 9, 2015 11:41 GMT  ·  By

Over the weekend, 14-year-old Hunter Boutain went swimming in Lake Minnewaska in Pope County, Minnesota, and contracted a potentially deadly brain-eating amoeba. 

This past Wednesday, he was admitted at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. Medical experts here are doing their best to keep the infection under control and save his life.

The Minnesota teenager is in critical condition

The brain-eating amoeba that infected 14-year-old Hunter Boutain is called Naegleria fowleri. The parasite is known to enter the body through the nose and then work its way into the brain.

“The organism can infect people by entering the body through the nose. Generally, this occurs when people get water up their nose from activities such as swimming and diving in warm freshwater,” officials with the Minnesota Department of Health write in a statement.

Once inside the brain, Naegleria fowleri triggers a devastating and potentially lethal infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis. The mortality rate for this brain infection stands at 99%.

People who are infected with this parasite display symptoms like nausea, vomiting, fever and intense headaches. As the brain infection progresses, they experience seizures and hallucinations, and their neck becomes stiff. Ultimately, they slip into a coma and pass away.

The doctors treating 14-year-old Hunter Boutain have not yet made any comments on this case. According to the teenager's uncle, however, the boy is in critical condition, DM reports.

“We are praying for a miracle for this rascal,” Bryan Boutain said. It is understood that the 14-year-old boy is now kept on a respirator, seeing as he cannot breathe on his own. He is unresponsive and doctors are rather skeptical about his chances to recover.

The public has nothing to worry about, officials reassure

On Tuesday, shortly after Hunter Boutain was diagnosed with primary amebic meningoencephalitis, authorities ordered that beaches around Lake Minnewaska be closed. They reopened them a few hours later, as health officials reassured that the general public had nothing to worry about.

“There is a low-level risk of infection from Naegleria in any freshwater,” Minnesota Department of Health Waterborne Diseases Unit Supervisor Trisha Robinson said in an interview.

The Minnesota health official went on to explain that, to avoid contracting Naegleria fowleri, people should do their best to prevent water from entering their nose and avoid stirring sediment deposits when swimming in lakes and other freshwater bodies.

Between the years 2005 and 2014, a total of 35 cases of people infected with the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri were documented across the entire US. Of these cases, two were reported in Minnesota in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Both resulted in death.

14-year-old Hunter Boutain
14-year-old Hunter Boutain

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Brain-eating parasite infects teenager in Minnesota, US
14-year-old Hunter Boutain
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