The State Department of Public Health Iowain USAreported the temporary closure of a playa Lake of the Three Fires State Park after a man who had swum in it was infected with the bacteria Naegleria fowleri, known as amoeba start brains.
Through a statement, the health authority explained that “Naegleria fowleri is a free-living unicellular microscopic amoeba that can cause a rare life-threatening infection of the brain called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which is extremely rare. Since 1962, only 154 known cases have been identified in the United States.”