Speaking of swimming with unwanted guests

This happy looking face is actually the feeding structures of the amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

A Brain eating Amoeba.

A 12-year-old Arkansas girl has been in a hospital for over a week after being infected with a typically fatal parasite that enters through the nose and consumes brain tissue.

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A 12-year-old Florida boy has contracted a deadly brain-eating disease from playing in a ditch near his home.
Zachary Reyna spent Aug. 3 kneeboarding in a ditch by his house. But the typically-active 7th grader seemed to be knocked out for the entire next day.
“We said, ‘Oh, he just has a virus. He just has one of those 24-hour viruses,’” Zachary’s brother, Brandon Villarreal, said. “He slept all day, all night, and that’s when my mom was like, ‘Okay, something’s not right.’”

The next thing his family knew, Zac had been diagnosed with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis — also known as PAM — and was undergoing brain surgery. He is currently in intensive care at Miami Children’s Hospital.