In July 2002, two boys in the Orlando area were affected after swimming in warm lakes, where they got the infections. One boy, 12, died after being infected by an amoeba (a microscopic organism) in the Conway chain of lakes. Being infected by this kind of amoeba is almost always fatal, as it is said to travel to the brain and not respond to antibiotics. Another boy, 15, was doing better as of this writing after battling a bacterial infection caught at Lake Talmadge. He reportedly had a cut, where the bacteria may have entered his body.
These aren't the first people to be infected this way -- you may hear about such cases almost every year -- but the infection is pretty rare. According to health reports, only 150 cases of the amoeba infection have been reported (18 in Florida from 1962-2000), and there have been only 50 cases of the 15-year-old's bacterial infection. Florida may see a greater percentage of these kinds of infections because these organisms thrive in the warm muck of the lake bottoms -- and people seek the swimming holes to get a reprieve from the heat.
Florida state health officials have advised against going into Florida freshwater areas until temperatures drop. If you must go into a lake, according to the Florida Department of Health, "wear nose clips, avoid stirring up sediment and avoid swimming near lake bottoms, where organisms are more concentrated."
