United States: An 8-year-old girl dies after being infected by a "brain-eating amoeba" during a swim

Eight-year-old Lillian Smart died on Saturday, August 22, after contracting an extremely rare infection caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri. Health officials believe the girl was infected while swimming in Lake Claiborne in northern Louisiana.

She had just turned eight. Lillian Smart, a little girl from Ruston, in northern Louisiana, died Saturday, August 22, in a Shreveport-area hospital. The day after her birthday, she died from an infection with Naegleria fowleri, a single-celled amoeba nicknamed the "brain-eater" because of the severity of the lesions it causes. Her parents announced the news in a Facebook post, which was picked up by several American media outlets, including local station KNOE 8 News.

“Last night, Lillian left our arms for those of Jesus,” wrote Daniel and Rebecca Smart, the girl’s parents, on Sunday morning. “The damage to her brain was too severe for her little body to recover. Everyone did everything they could to keep her with us. We are devastated and honestly don’t know what to do now.”

The amoeba enters through the nose and can travel up to the brain

According to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), which issued an alert as early as August 19, the girl was likely infected while swimming in Lake Claiborne, a popular freshwater lake during this period of intense heat. The infection occurs when water containing the amoeba enters through the nose and travels to the brain; it cannot be contracted by swallowing water, nor can it be transmitted from person to person, the health agency stated.

Naegleria fowleri thrives in warm freshwater environments such as lakes, rivers, canals, and ponds, as long as their temperature exceeds 25 degrees Celsius, a threshold regularly reached in the southern United States during the summer. Once infection takes hold, it leads to primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, which manifests as severe headaches, seizures, hallucinations, and then a coma that can lead to death within two and a half weeks.

Only four other cases have been recorded in the state in a century.

The Louisiana Department of Human Rights (LDH) lists approximately 180 confirmed cases in the United States between 1937 and 2025, only three of which were in Louisiana before Lillian Smart's case. The infection's mortality rate is around 97%. According to the Louisiana Illuminator news site, this would be the fifth death attributed to this amoeba in the state since 2011. The previous case recorded in Louisiana was in 2013, when a 4-year-old boy, exposed while playing on a domestic water slide, succumbed to the same infection.

Despite the severity of the illness, health authorities reiterate that the risk remains extremely low and that there is no need to give up water sports. However, the LDH (League for Human Rights) recommends avoiding getting fresh water in the nose while swimming and advises, in case of accidental contact, rinsing the sinuses with clean or distilled water.

In Ruston, where Lilian was known for her zest for life, several businesses had organized a collection for her birthday, just days before her hospitalization. The local community is now in shock.