CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There is new hope for those who become infected with naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba.
Carolinas Medical Center officials said the hospital now stocks a drug that can treat the often deadly infections caused by the amoeba.
A hospital representative said they now have 28 pills of the drug miltefosine.
Until recently, the drug was only available by special request in an emergency, case-by-case basis.
The amoeba lives in warm, fresh water and is only deadly if forced up the nose.
Lauren Seitz, 18, of Ohio, contracted the amoeba in June after visiting the U.S. National Whitewater Center in west Charlotte.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent the drug to the hospital where she was being treated, but it only arrived the night before she died.
Hannah Collins, 11, also died from the infection this summer. She contracted the amoeba after swimming in the Edisto River.
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