East Texas child contracts skin infection after swimming in Lake Sam Rayburn

ANGELINA COUNTY, TX (KTRE) - Amber Custer and her three year old son, Layne, returned from swimming at Cassels-Boykin County Park in Zavalla to find red dots on the boy's body. They soon turned into large, bleeding sores that covered the boy's entire body.

However, Sharon Shaw with the Angelina County and Cities Health District said that there are currently no alerts for flesh eating bacteria.

"There's some traditional advisories for our lakes," said Shaw. "Fish consumption. You need to make sure you watch how much fish you eat, on occasion, because of mercury."

According to Custer's aunt, a hospital outside of Houston has diagnosed him with flesh-eating staph.

Shaw agreed with the families quick action.

"If you go swimming and have flu-like symptoms, headaches, stiff neck, nausea, and vomiting after," said Shaw. "Always seek medical care because we need to be cautious about that."

Shaw is unclear whether Layne's illness is related to Lake Sam Rayburn, but she said that another bacteria could cause problems.

"PAM and that stands for primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, which is a disorder or disease you can have by having certain anaerobic amoebas going up your nose during swimming," said Shaw. "Swimmers need to be aware of, boaters, skiers, that any kind of violent force, fresh water to the face, could introduce bacteria."

PAM usually affects swimmers who hit the surface hard enough to push water up their nose and into the brain.

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