Las Vegas teen dies from brain-eating amoeba as experts warn against panic

Investigators believe teen was exposed in warm waters at Lake Mead but epidemiologist says disease is ‘very, very rare’

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“It gets people’s attention because of the name,” Brian Labus, a former public health epidemiologist,

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The CDC has tallied just 154 cases of infection and death from the amoeba in the US since 1962

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People need to be smart about it when they’re in places where this rare amoeba actually lives.

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Amoeba only infects people by entering the nose and migrating to the brain. It is almost always fatal.

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