Vickie Welborn

Louisiana

EBARB – The Ebarb Water System has tested positive for the brain-eating amoeba, according to state health officials

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said the infected water was sampled in August as part of its surveillance program. DHH learned the Ebarb system was not in compliance with the state’s emergency rule, which requires water systems to maintain a minimum disinfectant residual level of 0.5 milligrams per liter throughout all of their distribution lines. That level is known to control Naegleria fowleri.

The positive results were in the system’s lines in the Aimwell area, which serves 5,529 people. There have been no reports of illnesses in Sabine Parish as a result of the amoeba’s presence, DHH states.

Ebarb gets its water from multiple sources, including Toledo Bend and deep water wells. Toledo Bend is the source of the water that DeSoto Waterworks District No. 1 circulates through its system in DeSoto Parish, where test on end lines in the Stonewall and Frierson communities tested positive in October for the amoeba.

DHH is testing water systems in the state. Eight have been completed so far, including DeSoto and St. Bernard parishes where the amoeba also was found last year. Of those eight, DHH has results for six, with two testing positive for N. fowleri.

Systems with positive results did not have the required level of chlorine residuals. The tests take 14 calendar days to process. Tests taken the third week in August will be available the week of Sept. 22. Next week, the fourth round of samples will be collected.

St. John the Baptist Parish that serves over 12,000 people tested also positive late last month. It is in the midst of a 60-day chlorine burn.

DeSoto Waterworks No. 1 was last tested in May and got a clean bill of health from the Centers for Disease Control and Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Tests were negative for the presence of amoebic activity and the presence of actual amoeba.

DeSoto Parish grabbed national headlines in October when the CDC announced the amoeba was found in test sites in the taxpayer-funded water system. During the same time frame, the parasite also was detected in the St. Bernard Parish water supply. At the time, the two public water systems gained the distinction of being the only ones in the U.S. with amoeba-infected water.

Tests were performed in the two parishes after a Mississippi boy visiting St. Bernard Parish died in 2012 from a brain infection caused by N. fowleri. And that followed two deaths in 2011 – another in St. Bernard Parish and one in DeSoto Parish – attributed to the same infection.

A new law effective Aug. 1 increased the minimum disinfectant level for all water systems in the state.

DHH has issued an emergency order requiring Ebarb Water District 1 to perform a free-chlorine burn for 60 days. The water is safe to drink during this time.

At the end of 60 days, DHH will sample the system again for presence of the amoeba. In previous cases in Louisiana, this action has been effective in controlling the amoeba, according to DHH.

The emergency order also requires the system to achieve and maintain compliance with the state's minimum chlorine residual of 0.5 milligrams per liter throughout their system.

No known additional infections have occurred in DeSoto, St. Bernard or St. John the Baptist parishes.

"There are simple steps that residents in the Aimwell Area can take to avoid exposure to Naegleria Fowleri, but tap water is still safe to drink," DHH Public Health Assistant Secretary J.T. Lane said in a news release. "We spoke with local officials in Sabine Parish and the water district; they are working quickly to implement a chlorine burn in order to eliminate any ameba that may exist through the water system."

"Warm summer weather is ideal for swimming pools and outside with tap water, such as on a slip and slide, so it is important for families to take precautions, especially for small children," Louisiana State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry said in the release. "The amoeba can only infect a person through very small holes in the top of the nose that lead to the brain, so it is an extremely rare infection in humans. Even still, it is so important for families in the area to take precautions."