A Ruston child has been hospitalized with a brain-eating amoeba that she might have contracted while swimming in a North Louisiana lake, state and local health officials reported Wednesday. 

In a news release Wednesday morning, the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed a resident was infected with Naegleria fowleri, a pathogen that feeds on brain tissue. Infections are extremely rare but almost always fatal. The patient likely acquired the infection while swimming in Lake Claiborne, located in Claiborne Parish, shortly before illness, according to LDH.

KTBS-TV in Shreveport reported the infected child is 7-year-old Lillian Smart of Ruston, citing multiple social media posts. The girl’s mother, Rebecca Smart, has also posted appeals for prayers for her daughter’s recovery.

Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism commonly found in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, canals and ponds, though it has also turned up in tap water and recreational water parks and splash pads, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 

The amoeba causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, an extremely rare brain infection that can happen when water travels up the nasal canal and reaches the brain. The amoeba cannot cause an infection if it is swallowed.  

Naegleria fowleri is not found in saltwater or in properly chlorinated pools. Infection symptoms typically begin with headache, fever, nausea and vomiting before progressing to a stiff neck, seizures and coma before death within about a week or two. Symptoms typically appear within about five days after an infection and are fatal in 97% of cases, according to the CDC.

This is a developing story.