What to Know About the Brain-Eating Amoeba That Killed a Boy Swimming in a Lake

Lake Murray in Chapin, S.C., on July 29, 2025. Meg Kinnard/AP Photo

COLUMBIA, S.C.—A 12-year-old boy died from a brain-eating amoeba two weeks after a holiday weekend on a popular South Carolina lake.

The brain-eating amoeba enters the body when water is forced up the nose, like when someone jumps or dives in the water.