Rare Brain-Eating Amoeba Kills 6-Year-Old

A six-year-old boy in Texas recently died of a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba, CNN reported.

As reported, Josiah Christopher McIntyre initially started complaining about headaches and other symptoms. He then developed a fever and began vomiting.

His infection was finally detected when he was taken to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. McIntyre was admitted there to the neurological intensive care unit, where he underwent a number of CT scans.

The report quoted his mother Maria Castillo as saying, "Late Monday night or very early Tuesday morning they told us they believed it was this brain-eating amoeba."

"They explained the rarity of this amoeba and that out of the few cases that there have been very little survivors and that there was no treatment," she added.

The report said that the child was suffering from primary amoebic mengioencephalitis, which is caused by an infection of the single-celled amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

The boy's heart eventually stopped beating, and he breathed his last.