Waterpark's Brain-Eating Amoeba Killed Teen

A teenager was killed by a brain-eating amoeba that had contaminated "murky" water at a popular North Carolina waterpark, officials have said.

Chlorination and filtration systems at the artificial water rapids course, where Olympic kayakers have trained, was found to be inadequate to kill the organism.

Lauren Seitz died last month just over a week after she visited the US National Whitewater Center near Charlotte while on a church group trip.

It is thought the 18-year-old, of Westerville, Ohio, became infected by the Naegleria fowleri amoeba when her raft overturned.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the water channels at the centre were too murky with debris for the chlorine and ultraviolet light to kill the organism.

Health inspectors found the bug in all 11 water samples taken from the park's fast-flowing whitewater channel.

Ms Seitz - who planned to study a degree in music and environmental science - died on 19 June three weeks after graduating from high school.

The whitewater center closed five days later and has not indicated when or if it will reopen.

The park’s fast-water channels will be drained and cleaned to kill any vestiges of the amoeba, the non-profit organisation said.

Olympic qualifying trials for US canoe and kayak competitors were held at the centre in April and it hosted the qualifying races before the 2012 and 2008 Olympics.

State health officials noted the amoeba is common in lakes and other kinds of warm, fresh water, but it rarely makes anyone sick.

Symptoms usually show up five days after exposure and include fever, vomiting, seizures and hallucinations. The fatality rate is 97%, according to the CDC.

The amoeba must enter the body through the nose to cause harm, but does not infect a person who swallows the contaminated water.

Only 138 people nationwide have been stricken by the disease between 1962 and 2015, according to the CDC.