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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Family of boy who died from brain-eating amoeba speaks out: 'Unimaginable'
The family of a 12-year-old boy from South Carolina is grieving after he died from a brain-eating amoeba, according to a statement from their lawyer. Jaysen Carr died on July 18 after developing an infection from the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri, the statement shared by Bailey Law Firm said. The South Carolina Department of Public Health confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY on July 23 that a person died after being exposed to the amoeba earlier in July. Prisma Health Children's Hospital Midlands confirmed on July 22 that the person was treated at the facility but did not publicly identify the person. "The Carr family is incredibly grateful for the outpouring of love from the community and for the dedicated care provided by the doctors and nurses at Prisma Health Children's Hospital in the Midlands," the statement said. Brain-eating amoeba victim was 'bright and beloved' middle schooler The statement from the Carr family's lawyer said Jaysen was a "bright and beloved" middle school student. "His loss is unimaginable, and our hearts are with his family as they grieve their son and search for answers," the statement said. The legal team said it will "stand beside this family not only to seek the truth, but to help ensure no other family endures a loss like this." "We ask that you keep the Carrs in your thoughts and prayers and respect their privacy as they prepare to lay Jaysen to rest," Bailey Law Firm's statement said. Brain-eating amoeba: Person dies from Naegleria fowleri in South Carolina, officials say Family says boy was infected with brain-eating amoeba at SC lake The family's statement also said Jaysen Carr developed the infection after swimming at Lake Murray outside Columbia. The SCDPH said it also believed the exposure occurred at the lake. "We cannot be completely certain as this organism occurs naturally and is present in many warm water lakes, rivers and streams," the agency said. What is Naegleria fowleri? Why is it known as a brain-eating amoeba? Naegleria fowleri is a type of amoeba that can cause a rare but nearly always fatal brain infection. It thrives in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amoeba is often referred to as brain-eating because it can cause an infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) that destroys brain tissue. Most people who have been in bodies of waters have been exposed to the amoeba, but contact alone is not harmful, Dr. Anna Kathryn Burch, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Prisma Health Children's Hospital Midlands, said during a news conference on July 22. "Where it can cause an issue is if forceful water gets up the nose and is able to cross from the nose into the brain," Burch said, adding that a PAM infection causes the brain to swell. To protect against a possible infection, the CDC recommends holding or wearing a nose clip when jumping into fresh water, keeping the head above water in hot springs and using distilled or boiled tap water when rinsing sinuses. Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 12-year-old dies from brain-eating amoeba after swimming in lake
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israeli forces kill 63 Palestinian in Gaza within hours of ‘humanitarian pause'
The Israeli military killed at least 63 people across Gaza just hours after declaring daily 'pauses' in operations to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid, health officials said. The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies. However, within hours of the so-called 'humanitarian pause' taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. One reported strike targeted a bakery in an area designated as a 'safe zone', according to Al Jazeera. The humanitarian crisis continued to worsen. Health officials reported six more deaths, including of two children, from starvation in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 133. Among the latest to succumb was five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died of malnutrition at the Nasser Hospital. 'Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,' her mother Israa Abu Haleeb told Al Jazeera. The World Food Programme said one in three people in Gaza had gone days without food and about half a million were experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Health Organization. Israel maintains that it is working to improve aid access and denies that famine exists in Gaza. But aid organisations say the situation is catastrophic, with a quarter of the population at risk of acute malnutrition. UN officials say the crisis won't ease unless Israel speeds up the movement of aid convoys through its checkpoints. A top UN official said last week Palestinians were beginning to resemble 'walking corpses'. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said humanitarian workers were encountering children who were 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without immediate intervention. 'Families are no longer coping. They're breaking down, unable to survive,' Mr Lazzarini said. 'Their existence is threatened.' Israel has severely limited the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing only a small number of trucks to enter each day after enforcing an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials warn the current level of aid is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of need. The Israeli military intercepted an aid ship bound for Gaza that aimed to breach the blockade on the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and confiscating all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Sunday. The group said Israeli forces 'violently intercepted' their vessel, Handala, in international waters around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, cutting off cameras and communication shortly before midnight on Saturday. 'All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel's illegal blockade,'' the group said in a statement. It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israeli forces prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza. It was reported on Sunday that Jordan and the UAE had begun airdropping aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. But Mr Lazzarini said 'airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation'. 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & smokescreen,' he said in an X post. 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements with dignified access to people in need. Israel's war on Gaza has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, injured over 144,000, and left most of the densely populated coastal territory in ruins and the majority of its 2.2 million people homeless and starving. Israel launched the war in October 2023 after nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
'The air was so dangerous in my Birmingham postcode I ended up on life support'
A Birmingham resident who lived near the city's landmark motorway, the Spaghetti Junction, has revealed how she ended up on life support. Named only as Jenny, the 75-year-old woman said she 'never realised how dangerous the air was' until she was hospitalised with life-threatening pneumonia. Traffic fumes and poor housing conditions were to blame for her deteriorating health, doctors told her at the time. Living next to the busiest motorway in Europe, she also found herself suffering regular asthma attacks just from stepping outside. Read more: Couple who starved their dog told RSPCA inspectors she was 'given to them by drug dealers' The retiree found her health drastically improved when she moved nearer to green spaces and away from the motorway. Speaking as part of a new Health Equals campaign this week, she said: 'I never realised just how dangerous the air I was breathing every day really was, I used to live near Spaghetti Junction, and would suffer regular asthma attacks just from stepping outside my door. "It wasn't until I ended up in hospital with pneumonia and on life support that doctors told me the traffic fumes and my poor housing conditions were to blame. "Everyone deserves clean air – not just those lucky enough to live near green spaces or away from busy roads. My health improved dramatically after I moved and started walking in parks. But not everyone has that choice." Her experience with air pollution comes as Health Equals, a coalition of 85 organisations, revealed World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines were breached in 35,000 neighbourhoods across Britain. Its report also outlined all 506 schools in Birmingham were in neighbourhoods failing the guidelines, putting 290,000 children at risk of serious long term health problems, including heart disease and stroke. The new findings are being released as part of Health Equals' Make Health Equal campaign, to highlight alarming health inequalities: where toxic air, alongside other issues including poor income, unstable jobs and unsafe homes, are contributing to an alarming 16-year gap in life expectancy across the UK. Health Equals is calling for a cross-government strategy that prioritises action on these essential building blocks of health, to stop lives being cut short. City environment boss Coun Majid Mahmood said: "Poor air quality is a major risk to public health, and that is why we are committed to improving the city's air through our clean air strategy. 'Data published in October 2023 showed that our work to address the air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, is delivering results, with pollution levels in Birmingham city centre slashed by almost 40 per centr since 2016, driven in part by the introduction of the Clean Air Zone. 'Across the city, a dedicated air quality monitoring programme of potential 'hotspots' in Birmingham has found that all sites are within the annual mean air quality objective. This three year monitoring project concluded in 2024 and sought to identify any locations where concentrations of nitrogen dioxide might exceed the annual mean air quality objective. I am pleased to confirm our evidence suggests that outside of the city centre area, air quality concentrations are within legal limits. 'We also monitor particulate matter, both coarse and fine fractions (PM10 and PM2.5), and all of our sites continue to show compliance with legal limits set by Government. We will continue to work with Government to further drive down concentrations of fine particles as we know these are the largest risk to health and we have extended our monitoring network to this end. 'This is supported by our mission to install year-round air monitoring equipment in schools a key component in this. These monitors come in tandem with accompanying education resources and lesson plans helping to inspire a new generation of Clean Air champions. Our work in this area is underpinned further by projects like 'Car Free School Streets', which seeks to reduce emissions during rush hour, driven by readings from council monitoring data showing that the school gates are among the most polluted parts of the city. 'The school sensor programme has the co-benefit of providing monitoring data for fine particulate matter, recognised as a key pollutant in a range of adverse health outcomes such as heart disease, lung diseases and cancers. 'Furthermore, surplus revenues from the Clean Air Zone are feeding directly into our transport plan, enabling us to work in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority to support schemes related to active travel, improve public transport infrastructure, and manage demand in the city centre. 'Projects funded by Clean Air Zone revenues include a trial of hydrogen buses, upgrades to the University railway station and new stations on the Camp Hill line, as well as a number of projects within the Cross-City Bus scheme, the expansion of the Car Free School Streets programme, and development of the next phase of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution. Community grants for projects delivering against our priorities have also been provided through the Environment and Transport Neighbourhoods Fund (ETNF). 'Our work towards our clean air objectives continues with the recent launch of a consultation into the renewal of the city's Smoke Control Order, offering greater powers of enforcement against those who breach guidelines. This is just the latest step in our journey, which will not stop until we have achieved our objective of clean air for all residents.' Have you been affected by this. We would like to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing us on
