The fun ends in tragedy: a child becomes infected with a brain-eating amoeba in a playground in Texas

The death of a child from a brain-eating amoeba has been linked to a fountain playground in Arlington, Texas, reports star telegram.

Photo: Shutterstock

City officials said Monday that a child died on September 11 from a brain-eating amoeba that he likely came into contact with at a playground in Arlington Park.

On Sept. 5, Arlington officials and the Tarrant County health department were told the child was admitted to Cook Children's Medical Center with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare and often fatal infection. City authorities have closed all splash pads, an attraction on the playground, until the end of the year. The city's drinking water supply was not affected.

A district investigation found that the child was likely exposed to water either in his home or on a water attraction at Don Misenchimera Park at 201 E. Lonesome Dove Trail. Water samples collected between September 10 and 14 and sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for the amoeba on Friday.

Recordings from the attraction at Don Misenchimer Park and Beacon Recreation Center show that parks and recreational workers did not always register and did not conduct water quality tests, including testing for chlorine content.

The City is reviewing equipment, supplies, maintenance and water quality policies, as well as safety and staff regulations for the park. The public sprinklers were inspected before the start of the summer season, but were not properly maintained, according to city officials.

Workers did not document water chlorination readings for the mudguards at Don Misenchimer on two of the three dates the child visited the park in late August and early September. Workers added chlorine to the water supply the day after visiting the child, records show chlorination levels fell below local and state minimum requirements.

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The staff did not systematically document how they treated the water, the subsequent readings in the pool when testing water below minimum government standards at Beacon and Don Misenhimer.

“We have identified gaps in our daily inspection program,” Lemuel Randolph, deputy city manager, said in a statement. “These gaps resulted in us not meeting maintenance standards at the splash pads. All splash guards will remain closed until we are confident that our systems are operating properly and until we have confirmed a maintenance protocol in accordance with city, county and state standards.”

The infection, sometimes shortened to PAM, is caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The disease is a brain infection that leads to destruction of brain tissue, according to the CDC, and infects people when water containing amoeba enters the human body through the nose. The risk of infection is low: between 2010 and 2019, only 34 cases were reported in the United States. Most infections in the United States have been reported in warm freshwater lakes and rivers, hot springs, industrial discharges, and in some cases, insufficiently chlorinated swimming pool water or contaminated tap water can lead to infection.

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Symptoms of the disease include headache, fever, nausea or vomiting. They may appear 1–9 days after infection. Later symptoms include confusion, lack of attention to people and others, seizures, hallucinations, loss of balance, and neck stiffness. The disease progresses rapidly and is usually fatal within 12 days of symptoms appearing.

Only four of the 148 known infections in the US from 1962 to 2019 survived, according to the CDC, and it is unclear if any treatment is effective.

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