County: Still no reports of 'brain-eating amoeba'

The family believes Caleb is suffering from a Naegleria fowleri amoeba.

“He came up through the ranks in Little League baseball,” County Commissioner Joe Tiseo said during a Charlotte County Department of Health presentation about the amoeba Tuesday.

Tiseo said his son is about the same age as Caleb.

“I know him and his family,” he said.

Tiseo spoke on behalf of the Charlotte County Commission.

“Our hearts go out to the family,” Tiseo said. “It’s got to be devastating to the family and … I don’t want government to come off as being callous to what’s going on with that family; it’s a tragedy of epic proportion.”

And exceedingly rare.

According to the Center for Disease Control, Naegleria fowleri infects people when water containing the amoeba enters the body through the nose. It typically occurs when people go swimming and diving. The amoeba travels up the nose to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue.

The prognosis for a Naegleria fowleri infection is bleak. Infections are rare but the fatality rate is more than 97%. Only 4 out of 154 people infected with the amoeba in the United States from 1962 to 2021, have survived, according to the CDC.

The amoeba is usually found in warm freshwater, such as lakes and rivers. It can also be found in swimming pools that are poorly maintained, minimally chlorinated, and/or un-chlorinated.

Elizabeth Ziegelbauer told The Daily Sun that Caleb, along with his family, visited Port Charlotte Beach on Charlotte Harbor on July 1.

Charlotte Harbor is an estuary of brackish water receiving fresh water from three rivers and smaller streams that mixes with Gulf of Mexico waters.

“Caleb was in the water only a short time,” Elizabeth Ziegelbauer said, adding his cousins and siblings also went into the water. “By Saturday, July 9, Caleb began to have headaches and hallucinations.”

He ran a fever and his condition deteriorated rapidly, she said.

Caleb was transported to Golisano’s on July 10.

“While we don’t know 100% if it’s this amoeba,” Tiseo said Tuesday, “certainly some of the symptoms point that way — but we will figure all that out at some point. But right now, there is a young man struggling for his life and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. We should make the public aware.”

Symptoms include severe frontal headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, stiff neck, altered mental status and seizures. These symptoms typically progress rapidly to coma and death, according to the local DOH.

Public education is about all a local health department can do at this point, according to Health Department Administrator Joseph Pepe.

“Testing of the fresh water is not recommended by the Center of Disease Control because the amoeba is naturally occurring, and there is not established relationship between detection or concentration of Naegleria fowleri and the risk of infection,” Pepe said. “So, the goal here is lots of education.”

Pepe said that anyone using recreational water should assume that there is a low level risk of the Naegleria fowleri when entering any freshwater.

“The location and number of amoeba in the water can vary greatly over time (and) depends on conditions so posting of signs is unlikely to be effective in preventing infections,” he said.

Since Caleb’s hospitalization, one suggestion from the community has been to post warning signs about the amoeba at Charlotte County waterways.

“Posting of signs can sometimes cause challenges because it might create misconception that bodies of water that do not have the signs are free from the amoeba. So it can create a false sense of security,” Pepe said.

Pepe said the health department has been working to help Caleb.

“We’ve been working very hard behind the scenes, respectfully, and making sure those doctors have everything they need. We will drive whatever we need to get it there as fast as we can do,” Pepe said. “The chain of communication has been all the way through from local to state, to state experts, to CDC, and to national experts. There are lots of people looking at this information to try and do what’s best.”

In North Port, popular for both its Warm Mineral Springs and its North Port Aquatic Center, representatives said they closely monitor both city amenities.

“Warm Mineral Springs Park is monitored for bacteria levels on a monthly basis and high bacteria would result in a closure of the bathing area,” North Port Deputy Communications Manager Madison Heid said. “Pool waters (at the aquatic center) kept within the Florida Department of Health standards will prevent this bacteria from living in the pool waters but it should be warned that improperly maintained pools can carry many forms of bacteria.”

Mary Briggs, assistant director of strategic communications for the hospital, said the situation was reported to the Lee County Department of Health.

She would not confirm the type of amoeba, citing HIPAA rules.

Elizabeth Ziebelbauer said there was no other place Caleb had been swimming. There were about 30 people in the water that day. None of the other members of her family were infected by the amoeba.

The Department of Health in Lee County were contacted but did not respond by deadline of this report.

There is a GoFundMe created in support of Caleb. For more information, go to GoFundMe.com/f/wake-up-caleb. It has raised about $41,000 to help the family thus far.