An 8-year-old Louisiana girl died after contracting an infection from an extremely rare brain-eating amoeba found in warm fresh waters, her family said.
Lillian Smart died over the weekend after being diagnosed with a coronavirus infection. Naegleria fowleriaccording to a family spokesperson. Health authorities describe it as an amoeba that proliferates in bodies of fresh water throughout the United States; It can travel up the nose and cause an infection that is almost always fatal. On average, less than 10 cases are registered annually in the country.
“Last night, Lillian passed from our arms into the arms of Jesus,” her parents, Daniel and Rebecca Smart, wrote Sunday in a public Facebook post. “The brain injuries were too severe for her little body to recover. Everyone did everything they could to keep her here.”
The Louisiana Department of Health reported last week that the state had recorded its first confirmed case of coronavirus infection. Naegleria fowleri since 2013. The department, which did not identify Smart, does not comment on individual cases or specific patients, according to spokeswoman Stacey Grow.
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“Heartbroken by the news of Lillian’s passing,” Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wrote in X.
The infection was likely contracted while swimming in Lake Claiborne in northern Louisiana, the state Department of Health said.
The amoeba can cause a fatal infection known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis when water containing it rises through the nose and reaches the brain. Between 1937 and 2025, only about 180 infections have been confirmed in the United States, according to the Department of Health, which added that cases are “almost always fatal.”
The infection is not transmitted from person to person. The Naegleria fowleri It is found in temperate freshwater lakes, rivers, canals, and ponds throughout the United States. The amoeba becomes dangerous in waters above 77 degrees Fahrenheit and, for years, its presence has been recorded almost exclusively in summer in the southern part of the country. According to scientists, some cases have recently emerged in Maryland, Indiana and Minnesota.
“This amoeba exists naturally and there are no routine environmental tests to detect the Naegleria fowleri in bodies of water,” stated the Louisiana Department of Health.
Last year, a 12-year-old boy from South Carolina also died from an infection caused by this amoeba.
