Georgia boy, Leland Shoemake, hospitalized with Balamuthia amoeba infection

For the past month, 6-year-old Leland Shoemake has been in the battle for his life against a relatively rare, microscopic invader that has landed him in a Georgia hospital. The Pike County child contracted the free-living amoeba, Balamuthia mandrillaris, which since 1993, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports only some 70 cases in the US. ["]