The Latest: Rare drug rushed to brain-eating amoeba patient

An Orlando, Florida, drug company has rushed a drug used to fight rare parasites to a South Carolina hospital treating a patient who contracted a rare, usually deadly brain-eating amoeba.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the drug, called miltefosine, was critical in the recovery of one of only two people in the United States known to survive the amoeba.

State Department of Health and Environmental Control epidemiologist Linda Bell tells news outlets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday that the patient was exposed to Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER'-ee-uh FOW'-lur-ee), a one-celled organism that can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis.