Brain-Eating Amoeba Traced to Durham Center Water Feature

North Carolina officials say a man-made creek at a Durham mental health center was the likely source of a fatal Naegleria fowleri infection that killed a 17-year-old.

31 after contracting a rare brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri. According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, investigators could not conclusively determine where the teen was exposed, but interviews and environmental testing point to a water feature at El Futuro, a community-based mental health center in Durham County. The feature was closed on Aug. 28 and later drained.

Naegleria fowleri infections are extraordinarily rare — fewer than 10 U.S. cases are reported each year, and only 167 were logged nationally between 1962 and 2024, per NCDHHS. What stuns locals is that the likely source was not a lake or river but a small therapeutic garden creek outside a mental health center. One shopper told ABC11 she expected Falls Lake, Jordan Lake, or a river, 'not a small, manmade water feature.'

According to USA Today's account of the state report, the teen swam at an apartment pool on Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 and had planned pond visits earlier in the month, but family members identified El Futuro, where he splashed water on his face at the feature on Aug. 13. The CDC found Naegleria fowleri in samples from the fountain storage tank, rocks, and a fire hydrant. ABC11 reports the feature relied on recirculating water, hand-fed chlorination, and power washing, and was never effectively disinfected.

The amoeba does not cause illness when swallowed, but contaminated water forced up the nose can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a disease the CDC says kills more than 97% of those infected. Symptoms begin about five days after exposure — severe headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting — then progress to stiff neck, seizures, and coma, usually causing death within about five days, per NCDHHS. USA Today also reports the case follows the Aug. 22 death of an 8-year-old girl in Louisiana who may have been exposed while swimming in a lake.

The water feature remains closed with a 'Keep Out' sign posted, though ABC11 notes no fence prevents entry, and officials have not said whether it will reopen. The Durham County Health Department told ABC11 that El Futuro never completed the required application, evaluation, and permitting process for the feature. El Futuro said in a statement that its 'hearts are broken' and it will fully cooperate with public health officials, leaving open questions about how similar community water features will be regulated.