The amoeba is a single-celled organism that lives in hot springs, lakes and other warm freshwater bodies. The Missouri health department says this is only the state's third case on record, but infections are nearly always fatal.

A person is hospitalized in St. Louis after contracting a rare infection from a deadly waterborne amoeba, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported Wednesday.

State health officials can't say for sure where the patient contracted the amoeba but said the person had been waterskiing at the Lake of the Ozarks in the days before becoming sick.

The amoeba, Naegleria fowerli, is a single-celled organism that lives in hot springs, lakes and other warm freshwater bodies and often proliferates during the hot summer months.

In the rare cases in which

See Full Page