A seven-year-old boy died after going swimming in a lake on a family vacation which health officials suspect may be due to a severe bacterial infection.

Tevita Alatini, from Texas, was vacationing in the San Diego area with his family about a week ago when he fell sick after being in and out of the water at Camp Pendleton’s Lake O’Neill Recreational Park.

The boy was said to have first been throwing up and then a red rash developed under his armpit, according to the family.

Helen Niko, one of Tevita’s aunts, told San Diego’s 10News.com: ‘He was happy and climbing light poles and running around and having a good time just like any other seven-year-old would.

‘At first we thought it was nothing to worry about as he was born with a weak immune system but then the rash came.’

The little boy was rushed to the local emergency room which is where doctors expected he may have contracted a flesh-eating bacteria.

While he was being flown to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, his body started shutting down and he died shortly after arrival.

via Boy, 7, dies from possible bacterial infection after swimming in lake | Mail Online.