INDIANAPOLIS – An autopsy report shows a parasite known as the "brain-eating amoeba" killed a southwestern Indiana man.
State and federal officials haven't yet confirmed 30-year-old Waylon Abel of Loogootee died of a rare infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis, but the autopsy report released Friday lists it as his primary cause of death.
He died Aug. 7, just over three weeks after a family outing at West Boggs Lake, about 60 miles northeast of Evansville. The beach there was ordered closed Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has three confirmed cases of the disease this year in Minnesota, Oklahoma and South Carolina. A CDC spokeswoman says it expects to receive and test samples of the suspected Indiana case later this week.
The parasite thrives in warm water.
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