A potentially deadly brain-eating amoeba has just been found in the drinking water of a Louisiana neighborhood for the third time since 2015.

Naegleria fowleri was found over the weekend in Terrebonne Parish, deep in the Louisiana bayou about an hour south of New Orleans. This type of amoeba can cause fatal brain swelling and tissue destruction.

“It kinda freaks me out because this is my home, I can’t do what I usually do,” said Lindsey Dupre. “I want to know I’m secure rather than freak out over an amoeba.”

All freshwater sources in the area have been impacted by this, including drinking water, the water in the bayous and pools, plus water used for showers and baths. Michael Sobert from Consolidated Waterworks claimed that the water is “perfectly safe to drink.”

“It’s just not safe to get up your nose,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that people typically get infected when they are swimming in areas where the amoeba is present or when drinking water enters the nose. People can’t be infected just from drinking the water.

The Louisiana Department of Health has warned people to not let water go up their noses as they shower and to not let children play with hoses and sprinklers unsupervised. They also have told people to not submerge their heads in the bathtub.

Officials have switched from using chloramine to free chlorine, as that is more effective at killing the amoeba. However, this is just a temporary fix and officials are still looking for a more effective solution.

“It’s a way of life, I’m sorry to say that,” Sobert said. “I said it four years ago, as we continue to learn more and more about it, the hope is we can get something that will work.”

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