Naegleria fowleri, a fresh water amoeba that attacks the brain, usually kills its victims before they can get treatment. But as the Orlando Sentinel reports, a 12-year-old boy infected in South Florida last week is still alive, being treated at Miami Children’s Hospital.
He's being treated with a drug that helped an Arkansas girl his age recover from the amoeba infection last month. She’s only the third person to survive this kind of infection since 1962.