A ten-year-old boy is sedated and on a respirator in intensive care in Ziv Hospital in Tzfat after doctors believed he had contracted a brain infection caused by amoebic meningoencephalitis. 

It is not yet known how the boy contracted the disease.

This is the third case reported in Israel and the second time the amoeba has been discovered in a living patient. The first case, Naegleria fowleri, was diagnosed in August 2022 at Poriya Medical Center near Tiberias in a patient who had died. Amoeba is diagnosed only about 10 times yearly in the United States.

Earlier this month a 26-year-old man died of a similar infection caused by Naegleria fowleri. The man is suspected to have contracted the amoeba while swimming at Gai Beach in Tiberias.

While infection is extremely rare, with only some 400 cases diagnosed worldwide, it is often fatal.

Hospitals in northern Israel were reporting the arrival of dozens of patients on Thursday morning after the country’s Health Ministry ordered the immediate closure of a water park following two recent cases of infection by a rare amoeba.

Northern medical centers reported that “more than 70 individuals who visited Gai Beach, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, have sought medical attention at northern hospitals. All those examined were found to be healthy and without symptoms, and were subsequently discharged,” according to Israel Hayom.

David Ratner, spokesman for Rambam Hospital in Haifa, told JNS on Thursday that there was “a lot of panic,” with 10 children and 10 adults checking in and being released. “Other northern hospitals received even more,” he added.

The ministry ordered the park’s closure on Wednesday night “for precautionary reasons.” In addition, the ministry is asking anyone who spent time at the park in the last two weeks to seek medical help at the nearest emergency room if they experience fever, headache, blurred vision or vomiting.

A Health Ministry directive on Thursday afternoon clarified the previous announcement, reminding patients to contact their HMO call center for a referral before going to the emergency room.

“The ministry directed the health insurance funds so that a referral is given to anyone who was at the water park at Gai Beach in the last two weeks and experienced these symptoms,” said Shira Solomon, Health Ministry spokeswoman.

Naegleria fowleri is a free-living microorganism that primarily feeds on bacteria but can become pathogenic in humans causing an extremely rare, sudden, severe, and usually fatal brain infection known as naegleriasis or primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). It is typically found in warm freshwater bodies such as lakes, rivers, hot springs, warm water discharge from industrial or power plants, geothermal well water, and poorly maintained or minimally chlorinated swimming pools. 

Zechariah describes plagues that eat away at the human body as accompanying the pre-Messiah War of Gog and Magog. 

As for those peoples that warred against Yerushalayim, Hashem will smite them with this plague: Their flesh shall rot away while they stand on their feet; their eyes shall rot away in their sockets; and their tongues shall rot away in their mouths. Zechariah 14:12

“The prophet described a disease that would accompany the War of Gog and Magog,” Rabbi Levy told Israel365 News. “The current outbreak is exceptional and appears to fit the prophet’s description but it is not nearly on the scale of what we will see before Moshiach (Messiah)”

“The plague that comes after Gog and Magog will be even worse than the Bubonic Plague the world saw in the Middle Ages, destroying a significant part of the world population,” Rabbi Levy said. “But it will afflict specifically the people who came out against the Jews. 

The rabbi noted that this recent outbreak of such a horrifying disease may be a reminder to the public to pray for others.

“Right now we are just seeing wake-up calls, reminders that Moshiach is on the way,” Rabbi Levy said. “God works in stages. He could have created the world in one moment but he chose to do it in six days. The sunrise and sunset are gradual, coming in stages. The Messiah will work in the same way. There will be hints, small occurrences that will reappear in the final days.”

“This is God’s way of showing that even though many of the prophecies seem unlikely or even impossible, they are possible,” Rabbi Levy said. “It gives us a chance to see that everything prophesied about the Messiah can, indeed will happen and we need to prepare now and not when they appear in fullness. But by then, it will be too late.”