A Texas 14-year-old who contracted a rare brain-eating disease after swimming in a lake about 70 miles north of Houston has died, according to his family and local media.
Michael Riley Jr., a junior Olympian and honor student, seemed to have contracted the disease after he went swimming Aug. 13 with his track team, his father, Mike Riley, told KTRK earlier this week.
“It is with a heavy heart, that we let everyone know that Michael John Riley Jr. lost his battle on this earth but won a victory for his place in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the family said in a statement on their Facebook page late Saturday.
A spokeswoman for Texas Children’s Hospital, where Michael had been listed as a patient, declined to provide information when reached Sunday, citing patient confidentiality.
The disease is caused by exposure to a single-celled organism known as Naegleria fowleri, often referred to as the brain-eating amoeba.
It is commonly found in warm fresh water such as lakes, rivers and hot springs, as well as soil. It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contracting the brain disease is rare, it said.
The organism is most commonly encountered in the southern United States during the summer, when temperatures are highest, the CDC said. Of 133 people known to have been infected with it in the United States since 1962, only three have survived, the CDC said.