Girl dies from brain-eating amoeba

This article is more than 12 months old

Aug 08, 2016 06:00 am

An 11-year-old South Carolina girl died after she was infected by a brain-eating amoeba in a river where she had gone swimming, an undertaker said on Saturday.

Hannah Collins died on Friday at the Medical University of South Carolina, said the director-manager of Anderson Funeral Home, which is handling the funeral.

Hannah is thought to have been exposed to the amoeba on July 24 in the Edisto River, the state health department said.

Hannah's mother wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to her: "I will try to find comfort in the fact I will one day be united with her in her new home, Heaven."

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that a South Carolina resident was exposed to the Naegleria fowleri organism, which is found in warm freshwater and triggers an infection that destroys brain tissue.