Whitewater Center closes water features

CHARLOTTE, NC– “We feel pretty uneasy at this point in time after being there all day,” said Chicago visitor, Mark Abruzino.

Tourists leaving the Whitewater Center Friday were shocked to hear the brain eating amoeba that killed an 18-year-old Ohio teen was found in the water at the center and it was still open all day.

“During all this investigation of this disease the park was never closed im surprised on that matter,” said Vick Abruzino from Chicago.

Doctor Marcus Plescia with Mecklenburg county health department says once the CDC samples came back positive, the Whitewater Center decided on their own to close all water features out of caution but that the tragic death was so rare they don’t want people to panic.

“It is not common at all common for people to develop illness after they’ve come into contact with this organism,” said Dr Plescia.

Dr Plescia says the center has a state of the art cleaning system but water comes in from many outside sources and the organism is very common in all of them.

“If people go swimming in lakes and ponds and rivers around here they are likely to come into contact with this,” said Dr Plescia.

For now they say they will work with the center and the CDC to continue testing samples and disinfecting so the public regains their confidence in getting back into the water there.

” It is a very difficult organism to get rid of and I don’t know it’s realistic to say we would totally get rid of this organism probably the goal would be to make sure the concentrations of they are there are very low,” said Dr Plescia.