Overview
- The Health Ministry confirmed late Sunday that laboratory testing identified Naegleria fowleri in a nine-year-old who developed encephalitis and is sedated and ventilated at Rambam Medical Center.
- Investigators say the child swam at Kursi Beach on the Sea of Galilee about a week before hospitalization and the ministry has opened an epidemiological probe to trace the exposure.
- The ministry advised swimmers to avoid water entering the nose by holding the nose or using nose clips, to avoid diving or disturbing sediment, and to seek urgent care for fever, severe headache or changes in consciousness after freshwater exposure.
- Officials warned that routine water sampling cannot reliably show a natural site is safe because the amoeba’s presence is uneven and can change with temperature, and they have called for clearer warning signs at Kinneret beaches.
- Although cases are extremely rare worldwide, the ministry cites roughly 500 documented infections and a high fatality rate, and reporting shows inconsistent counts of recent Israeli cases which public-health investigators are reviewing.