A 19-year-old Houston man has died after exposure to a brain-eating amoeba, bringing the total to three deaths in Texas from the amoeba in a year.

KWTX reports the man was swimming in freshwater in Harris County when he contracted the amoeba in early July. While exposure to the amoeba is nearly always fatal according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is only fatal if the water is sucked up through the nose, giving the amoeba access to the brain. Dr. Seth Sullivan from the Brazos County Health Department calls exposure a true "one-in-a-million" chance with only 2.6 cases per million people.

Last August, a four-year-old died after being exposed to the amoeba in the Trinity River.

Resident Dale Johnson lives on the Trinity River and notices many people, including children, playing in the potentially fatal water,

I'm out on the water all the time on my boat that is just for fishing, running trot lines and hand-fishing.

There might be 30 or 40 of them at a time.

Now that I know about it, it bothers me, especially for little kids. I mean, you can warn people, but they are going ahead and do what they want anyways.

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