By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

With the back-to-back lethal cases of the “brain-eating amoeba”, Naegleria fowleri this month–in California and North Carolina–I wanted to help get the word out about this deadly parasitic disease and how to prevent it.

And I new the right person to call to give some information and provide some awareness–Steve Smelski.

Steve and Shelly Smelski lost their 11 year old son, Jordan in 2014 after the child contracted the amoeba in Costa Rica. Out of this tragedy, the Jordan Smelski Foundation for Amoeba Awareness was born, which Steve is the President.

Steve joined me and the livestream audience to tell the heartbreaking story of their loss of their son to this parasite.

In addition, we discussed several aspects of the amoeba to include “how rare is it?”, transmission, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Naegleria: Fort Worth hospital 1st to house miltefosine in 2016, today it’s 21 hospitals

Steve also took us on a tour of the most informative website run by the foundation.

I encourage people to share this video/podcast to help increase awareness of Naegleria fowleri.

Check out the website: Jordan Smelski Foundation for Amoeba Awareness and if you can, contribute to this cause and the great work they do for education and research.

Watch the video of the livestream:

Karachi reports 7th ‘brain-eating amoeba’ case of 2021

Or listen to the podcast: