[StBernard] Brain-eating amoeba cases, including St. Bernard death, examined by website

[Westley Annis]

Brain-eating amoeba cases, including St. Bernard death, examined by website

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on July 28, 2014 at 4:05 PM, updated July 28, 2014 at 4:24 PM

A recent BuzzFeed article detailing the struggle of a 12-year-old Arkansas
girl to survive a brain-eating amoeba also delves into other recent cases of
the infection, including the 2013 death of 4-year-old Drake Smith Jr. in St.
Bernard Parish.

The Arkansas girl, Kali Hardig, was the third known survivor of the
infection, according to BuzzFeed. She was released from the hospital on
Sept. 11, 2013, a day before Louisiana health officials announced the amoeba
was in St. Bernard's water supply.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reported how that announcement made St.
Bernard the first municipality in the United States to have its treated
water system test positive for the brain-eating amoeba, according to the
CDC.

The BuzzFeed article links back to our reporting on St. Bernard's past water
violations and also coverage of a public meeting about the amoeba in
September 2013.

"St. Bernard Parish is in some senses unique - a depopulated community
recovering from coastal flooding and drawing its water from a big, brown,
nutrient-rich river," wrote Peter Andrey Smith in the BuzzFeed article. "But
everywhere, really, our landscapes are engineered this way.

"Pipes laid to convey drinking water also provide an environment for
microorganisms to live. The nation's crumbling subterranean infrastructure,
with an estimated quarter of a million water main breaks every year,
present, as one expert put it to me, 'opportunities for intrusion.'"

Smith later adds, "Human society has built many a friendly habitat for the
amoeba."

In February, after increased chlorine levels for several months, NOLA.com |
The Times-Picayune reported that the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention testing confirmed the St. Bernard water supply no longer had the
rare Naegleria fowleri amoeba.

In June, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill into law to establish a minimum
level of disinfectant for all Louisiana water systems in order to keep the
brain-eating amoeba at bay.

The St. Bernard Parish government and Parish Council currently are
considering a water rate hike to help "maintain a healthy infrastructure."