An 8-year-old Louisiana girl has died after contracting a rare and almost always fatal brain-eating amoeba while swimming, prompting renewed questions from families about who faces the greatest risk from the pathogen and how to reduce exposure during the remaining weeks of summer.

Lillian Smart, of Ruston, Louisiana, died Aug. 22, according to a public Facebook post shared by her family on the "Love for Lillian" page, which said the "injuries to her brain were too severe for her little body to recover from." The Louisiana Department of Health reported Aug. 19 that it had confirmed a case of Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as a brain-eating amoeba, which Smart likely contracted while swimming in Lake Claiborne.

Naegleria fowleri is commonly found in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals and ponds throughout the United States, according to USA Today. It is not found in saltwater, and properly maintained and chlorinated swimming pools do not harbor the organism. The amoeba has earned its "brain-eating" nickname because it can cause a rare but devastating infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, which destroys brain tissue and is almost always fatal.

Infection occurs when water containing the amoeba forcefully enters a person's nose, typically during activities such as diving, jumping or swimming underwater in warm freshwater. Naegleria fowleri cannot infect people if swallowed, and the infection does not spread from person to person, meaning the risk is tied specifically to water entering the nasal passages rather than any other form of........

© International Business Times