A 12-year-old boy has died from a brain-eating amoeba after swimming in a South Carolina lake over the July Fourth weekend

Most people who come into contact with Naegleria fowleri never get sick. The amoeba can only infect a person when contaminated water goes up the nose, often during swimming or diving. It then travels to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue.

My son was a very smart individual. If he had one warning, he would have thought swimming in the lake was a bad idea," the boy's father said.