| AUSTIN (AP) - A Travis County boy is fighting what health officials believe is a rare and usually fatal form of meningitis.
The boy, who health officials said is believed to be 11 or 12, became sick after swimming in Lake LBJ and is now at Dell Children's Medical Center in Austin.
Doctors think he has primary amebic meningoencephalitis, also known as PAM, said Emily Palmer, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. Laboratory tests were pending Tuesday.
The name of the child has not been released because of medical privacy laws.
The amoebas responsible for the illness live in soil and in all bodies of fresh water rivers, lakes, streams and stock ponds except for those fed by spring water, which often is too cool for them to survive, Palmer said.
‘‘It thrives in warm water, above 80 degrees,'' Palmer said. ‘‘It also thrives during the hot, summer months, and it tends to thrive when the water is not moving swiftly.''
The amoeba does not live in properly maintained chlorinated pools or in salt water but can be found in hot springs and hot tubs, according to the American Public Health Association's Control of Communicable Diseases Manual.
Infection occurs when a person inhales water through the nose, allowing the parasite to be carried to the brain. It causes fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck and hallucinations.
Only 34 cases of PAM have been reported in Texas since 1972, and all those people died, Palmer said. The last was in 2005.
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