A 10-year-old Valley Mills, Texas girl has died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba while swimming in the Brazos river near her Central Texas home. Lily Mae Avant had been hospitalized after her family said she started to get a headache, had a fever and became incoherent. Doctors say the amoeba travels to the brain where it destroys brain tissue. The CDC says the fatality rate when contracting such an amoeba is more than 97%.
Photo: CDC/ Dr. Govinda S. Visvesvara