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 / Updated By Maggie Fox 
 
 A deadly waterborne amoeba that can get into the brain and kill has been found again in tap water in the New Orleans area, state health officials said Thursday. 
 
 They’ve found Naegleria fowleri in St. Bernard Parish, a coastal suburb of New Orleans that was devastated 10 years ago by Hurricane Katrina. 
 
 In 2013, the one-celled organism killed a 4-year-old Mississippi boy who likely got it playing on a back yard Slip 'N Slide. Tests showed it was living in under-chlorinated tap water in the system. Officials cleaned and flushed the system at the time, but it’s back, the state Department of Health and Hospitals said. 
 
 “DHH Safe Drinking Water Program staff sampled seven sites along the St. Bernard Parish Water System. Two of the seven sites tested positive for the amoeba,” the department said in a statement. 
 
 "Two of the seven sites tested positive for the amoeba." 
 
 “One positive test was at a site at the water treatment plant before the water was treated. The second positive test occurred at 948 Angela Street, which may have been contaminated by ground water due to a leak at the sampling station. Chlorine levels at the site of the positive sample did meet the 0.5 mg/l requirement.” 
 
 The health department's Olivia Hwang says officials are putting extra chlorine into the water. She said a car hit the sampling station, causing damage and possibly allowing untreated groundwater to leak into the water supply. 
 
 Chlorination kills the amoeba, which can multiply in warm water. It’s often found in lakes and rivers. It killed a Minnesota teenager earlier this month. 
 
 "There are a number of parts of St. Bernard parish that still don’t have the same levels of population since Hurricane Katrina," she said. That means less water gets used. "Use is good because it pushes new water through the system," she added. 
 
 If fresh water is not continually flushed through pipes, the water can sit and become warm and contaminated. 
 
 N. fowleri is usually harmless unless it gets up someone’s nose. It’s not entirely clear how or why, but in rare instances it can attach to one of the nerves that takes smell signals to the brain. There, the amoeba reproduces and the brain swelling and infection that follows is almost always deadly. 
 
 "The Department urges residents to avoid getting water in their noses." 
 
 It doesn’t hurt people who swallow water. 
 
 “Tap water in St. Bernard Parish is safe for residents to drink, but the Department urges residents to avoid getting water in their noses,” Louisiana’s health department said. 
 
 “DHH conducts sampling of public drinking water systems for Naegleria fowleri each summer when temperatures rise. So far, DHH has tested 12 other systems for the ameba and still awaiting lab results for each.” 
 
 The department has some advice for residents while it re-treats the water system: ||||| A potentially deadly amoeba has been found in the water supply of a parish outside New Orleans for the second time in two years, officials said. 
 
 Water from St. Bernard Parish, five miles outside of downtown New Orleans, has tested positive for Naegleria fowleri and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals ordered a 60-day chlorine "burn" starting Thursday to ensure the pathogen would be eradicated from the water supply, officials said. 
 
 It remained unclear how prevalent the amoeba was in the water system since the only two positive tests included a sample of untreated water and another sample from a station that may have been contaminated by ground water. The treated water was found to have the recommended amount of chlorine. 
 
 Jacob Groby, quality control chief for St. Bernard Parish Water and Sewer Division, said water was being flushed and retested to see if the amoeba was present anywhere else in the 225-mile water system. 
 
 The water system serves 44,000 people, down from approximately 68,000 before Hurricane Katrina drove out residents in 2005. 
 
 The lowered population post-Katrina and increased use of eco-friendly devices have led to less water being treated for the same water system, Groby said. As a result, water is standing in the pipes for longer and possibly losing some of its chlorination, he said. 
 
 The Naegleria fowleri is a naturally occurring pathogen in freshwater and can be deadly if it enters the body through the nose and makes its way into the brain. It does not harm people if they drink it or if it gets on their skin. 
 
 In 2013, a 4-year-old boy died in the parish after being infected with the amoeba, while playing on a slip-n-slide, health officials said at the time. 
 
 Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical School, said people in the area should take steps to stay safe, including keeping their pool chlorinated, and stopping children from playing with hoses to stay cool. 
 
 "You don't [want] water up into the nose," Schaffner said. "You can’t get it just by drinking water -- that’s not a problem." 
 
 Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the water supply for New Orleans was affected. St. Bernard’s Parish has its own water supply. ||||| Officials in St. John the Baptist said Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, was found in the parish's water. 
 
 Watch breaking news report 
 
 According to St. John the Baptist Parish representative Paige Falgoust, the amoeba was detected in Water District 1. The water system serves 12,577 people in the towns of Reserve, Garyville and Mt. Airy. 
 
 "The water system was sampled as part of DHH's surveillance program that just launched earlier this month. During the ameba testing, DHH discovered the system was not in compliance with the State's emergency rule, which requires water systems to maintain a minimum disinfectant residual level of 0.5 milligrams per liter throughout all of their distribution lines. This 0.5 mg/L level is known to control the Naegleria fowleri ameba," the parish said in a news release. 
 
 While residents can consume the water, the parish said there is a risk is an amoeba enters the nasal passage. 
 
 Beginning at 7 a.m. Thursday, the Department of Health and Hospitals will begin a chlorine burn that will last for 60 days. 
 
 During the chlorine burn, residents may notice a change in the smell and taste of the water, officials said. 
 
 "Families can take simple steps to protect themselves from exposure to this amoeba, the most important being to avoid allowing water to go up your nose while bathing or swimming in a pool," said Louisiana State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry. "It is important to remember that the water is safe to drink; the amoeba cannot infect an individual through the stomach." 
 
 PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES FOR FAMILIES 
 
 According to the CDC, personal actions to reduce the risk of Naegleria fowleri infection should focus on limiting the amount of water going up a person's nose and lowering the chances that Naegleria fowleri may be in the water. Preventative measures recommended by the CDC include the following: 
 
 * DO NOT allow water to go up your nose or sniff water into your nose when bathing, showering, washing your face, or swimming in small hard plastic/blow-up pools. 
 
 * DO NOT jump into or put your head under bathing water (bathtubs, small hard plastic/blow-up pools) - walk or lower yourself in.DO NOT allow children to play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers, as they may accidentally squirt water up their nose. Avoid slip-n-slides or other activities where it is difficult to prevent water going up the nose. 
 
 * DO run bath and shower taps and hoses for five minutes before use to flush out the pipes. This is most important the first time you use the tap after the water utility raises the disinfectant level. 
 
 * DO keep small hard plastic/blow-up pools clean by emptying, scrubbing, and allowing them to dry after each use. 
 
 * DO use only boiled and cooled, distilled or sterile water for making sinus rinse solutions for neti pots or performing ritual ablutions. 
 
 * DO keep your swimming pool adequately disinfected before and during use. Adequate disinfection means: 
 
 * Pools: free chlorine at 1-3 parts per million (ppm) and pH 7.2-7.8, and 
 
 * Hot tubs/spas: free chlorine 2-4 parts per million (ppm) or free bromine 4-6 ppm and pH 7.2-7.8. 
 
 * If you need to top off the water in your swimming pool with tap water, place the hose directly into the skimmer box and ensure that the filter is running. Do not top off by placing the hose in the body of the pool. 
 
 FOR UPDATES 
 
 For more information on how to protect yourself and on the current status of testing, visit DHH's Water Facts website at www.dhh.la.gov/WaterFacts. 
 
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– Residents in Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish had to deal with a nasty brain-eating amoeba in their water supply last summer—and now the amoeba has made a return appearance. Water in the parish right outside New Orleans has tested positive for Naegleria fowleri, and officials say the state's Department of Health and Hospitals has ordered a "chlorine burn" to purge the system of the possibly fatal pathogen, ABC News reports. Naegleria fowleri can cause a rare, potentially deadly brain infection when contaminated water enters a person's body (usually by water going up the nose, per the CDC) and travels up to the brain. A statement from the state's Department of Health and Hospitals says two of the seven sites it tested came back positive for the amoeba; NBC News notes one of the two positive samples was of untreated water; the other was from a sampling station hit by a car, which may have caused untreated groundwater to leak into the supply. The 225-mile water system that serves the parish used to provide about 68,000 residents with water, but Hurricane Katrina whittled that number down to about 44,000—and because of that decreased population and an increase in ecofriendly water devices, less water is being treated in the same system, which could end up creating the ideal breeding ground for the amoeba, per ABC. "Use is good because it pushes new water through the system," a health department spokeswoman tells NBC. If fresh water isn't continually forced through the pipes, it can lose the chlorine that kills the amoeba and become contaminated. Despite elevated concern from this news, the health department says it's still safe to drink the water—consumers should just take special care not to get it up their noses. (A 12-year-old Florida boy died in 2013 after being infected with the amoeba.)