The test results come two days after state health officials announced an OH woman died of an amoebic infection.
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According to a memo obtained by WBTV, Mecklenburg County Manager Dena R. Diorio told county commissioners that water samples taken at the Whitewater Center are all coming back positive with the Naegleria fowleri amoeba.
Now officials say they’ve found evidence of the microbe in the water, and have closed the affected parts.
In a statement to NBC4i Thursday, Lauren’s father James described his daughter as a lover of nature and music, and said his family was devastated by her death.
“Only whitewater activities are suspended”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the presence of the N. fowleri in her cerebral spinal fluid. “The USNWC is committed to working with health officials and all organizations to investigate in all manners possible the circumstances related to this incident”, Wise continued. Only whitewater activities are suspended. The center’s water is not inspected by the county or state because the man-made system is not considered to be a public pool, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, Mecklenburg County’s health director.
“This is not a surprise”.
Health officials said they had a team out at the center Tuesday after learning about the incident, and “did not find anything”. The water is disinfected with ultraviolet radiation and filtered with a disc filtration system. If that doesn’t happen, health department officials will order the facility to be closed temporarily, Diorio said in the email. The full results are expected to be returned next week, once the cultures have a chance to grow.
According to a story published on the topic by Wsoctv, “As of Wednesday night, it was business as usual at the Whitewater Center”.
“The risk of driving to the Whitewater Center from your home and being in an accident is probably higher than being infected by this organism, even now at the Whitewater Center”, Plescia said. Several other people also overturned on the raft. It’s a one-celled organism that can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis.
Early symptoms, which can occur one to nine days after infection, include headache, fever, vomiting, and nausea.
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While the NCDHHS didn’t release the person’s identity, 18-year-old Lauren Seitz’s church, Church of the Messiah United Methodist, in Westerville, OH says the teen girl died Sunday. This is the same day NCDHHS says the victim died. They returned home June 11, and Seitz died June 19. He also believes based in information from church staff that was the only day the group went swimming.
