Health Ministry Warns Against Swimming at Specific Beaches After Rare Brain-Eating Amoeba Case

Israel's Ministry of Health has issued a bathing warning for the Kiryat Haim beach due to unusually high microbial results found in water quality tests. The ministry emphasized that swimming is only permitted at designated beaches. This advisory follows a report from Sunday concerning a nine-year-old boy from Pardes Hanna, Baruch Neria, who was hospitalized in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Rambam Hospital. He contracted a rare and fatal amoeba, identified as Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as the "brain-eating amoeba."

The investigation revealed the boy had swum at the Kursi beach on the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) about a week before symptoms appeared. Laboratory tests confirmed the infection. His family is asking the public to pray for his full recovery. The amoeba thrives in warm, fresh water and causes an extremely rare disease with a very high mortality rate, with fewer than 500 cases documented globally.

Health officials stressed that the disease is not transmitted from person to person and that drinking contaminated water is not dangerous. Infection occurs exclusively when contaminated water enters the nasal cavity, allowing the amoeba to travel to the central nervous system and brain, causing severe damage.