A nine-year-old boy died on Thursday after getting infected by a brain-eating amoeba during a swim in the Sea of Galilee earlier this month.

Baruch Neriya, a fourth-grader from Pardes Hanna, swam at Kursi Beach in early September.

About a week later, he was hospitalized at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa after contracting encephalitis as a result of a rare amoeba of the Naegleria fowleri type.

The amoeba, which thrives in warm freshwater sources, causes an extremely rare but highly fatal infection of the central nervous system.

Infection occurs exclusively when contaminated water enters through the nose, allowing the organism to travel to the brain. It cannot be contracted by drinking water, nor does it spread from person to person.

Fewer than 500 cases have been reported worldwide since the infection was first identified in the 1960s,........

© The Times of Israel