Overview

• A previously healthy 71-year-old woman developed fever, headache and altered mental status four days after rinsing her nose with untreated RV tap water and died eight days later from primary amebic meningoencephalitis.
• The CDC confirmed Naegleria fowleri in her cerebrospinal fluid and Texas health officials determined the RV water system had insufficient disinfection during their environmental investigation.
• Naegleria fowleri triggers primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare brain infection with a survival rate below 5% and typically fewer than ten U.S. cases annually.
• Officials reassured residents that municipal tap water remains safe to drink but warned that nasal exposure to contaminated water poses the infection risk.
• Health authorities are urging the public to use only distilled, commercially sterile or boiled and cooled water for nasal irrigation devices to prevent future PAM infections.