INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Tests confirm a parasite known as the “brain-eating amoeba” caused the death of a southwestern Indiana man.

An Indiana State Department of Health spokeswoman said Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed primary amebic Meningoencephalitis caused the death.

Privacy laws prevented her from identifying the man, but an autopsy report had identified the disease as the primary cause of death of 30-year-old Waylon Abel of Loogootee.

Abel died about three weeks after swimming July 15 in West Boggs Lake, about 60 miles northeast of Evansville.

The parasite that causes the disease occurs naturally in warm, fresh water. It enters the body through the nose, travels to the brain and destroys tissue there.

The CDC also has confirmed PAM deaths this year in Minnesota, Okahoma and South Carolina.