RALEIGH, N.C. — The chlorination and filtration systems at an artificial water rapids course where Olympic kayakers train were inadequate to kill a rare, brain-attacking organism, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said after an Ohio teenager died from the amoeba.
The rushing water channels at the U.S. National Whitewater Center had become so murky with debris that the chlorine and ultraviolet light that might have killed the Naegleria fowleri amoeba didn’t work, Dr. Michael Beach said Friday.
“It’s kind of a murky water,” said Beach, the CDC’s associate director for healthy water. Speaking by phone, Beach wouldn’t comment on whether a more effective system could have saved the life of Lauren Seitz, 18, of Westerville, Ohio.
