– A patient in Hillsborough County has become infected with a rare and usually deadly brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The amoeba is commonly found in freshwater and infects someone when contaminated water enters that person’s nose.

Those infections are mostly likely to occur in July, August and September when the water in lakes, rivers, ponds and canals is warmer.

“Naegleria fowleri is found in many warm freshwater lakes, ponds and rivers in the United States, but is more common in southern states?

The low number of infections makes it difficult to know why a few people have been infected compared to the millions of other people that used the same or similar waters across the U.S.,” a news release from the FDOH read