LAKE ELSINORE -- Legal consultants are advising the city to reject a $1.3 million claim for damages sought by a Lake Elsinore family whose 9-year-old son died last year from a rare brain infection transmitted by a microscopic parasite.

Public health officials diagnosed Josue Abisai Montes as having died Aug. 2 from meningoencephalitis spread by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

Montes' parents, Mehchsac and Adela Montes, contend in the claim filed against the city as well as the county that their son contracted the infection while swimming in Lake Elsinore. They allege city and county officials failed to warn the public of the risk of getting the disease from the lake.

Representatives of Santa Ana-based Carl Warren & Company, which advises Lake Elsinore and other cities on claims for damages, recommends that the City Council deny the claim. Such claims are routinely denied. Once a government agency denies a claim, a claimant is allowed to sue that agency seeking damages.

The council is scheduled to respond to the recommendation when it meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Cultural Center, 183 N. Main St.

The Montes' attorney, Edoardo Salvatore, declined to comment until the city and county respond and said his clients would not be available for an interview.

The claim seeks $1.2 million in general damages, $102,635 in medical bills and $3,536 in funeral expenses.

Riverside County spokesman Ray Smith said the claim is being reviewed by the county counsel's office, which will eventually make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.

Smith said county health officials had publicly stated after the boy's death that it was impossible to determine where he had contracted the parasite, though it is known he had entered Lake Elsinore several times.

The amoeba is found in freshwater lakes and ponds that are warm and, upon entering a person's system through the nasal cavity, it can cause an infection that leads to death within three to seven days, health officials say. However, not everyone exposed to the amoeba is affected and the infection is very rare, the officials said.

In 2007, there were six deaths attributed to the amoeba nationwide, two in 2006 and three in 2005, said spokeswoman Arleen Porcell of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. From 1995 to 2004, the amoeba killed 23 people in the U.S., the CDC previously reported.

Josue Montes is the only person reported to have died in the United States in 2008 because of Naegleria fowleri, Porcell said.

She said it's possible other cases haven't been reported yet from 2008. She added states aren't required to report such cases to the federal agency.

"Pretty much, it's one case in California that we are 100 percent sure of," she said. "There's not too many cases. It's very uncommon. Unfortunately, when they happen, they're deadly."

Awareness of Naegleria fowleri in this region arose following the death of a 25-year-old Lake Elsinore woman in June 2006 who was known to frequent the lake.

Family members heard about the deadly infection and suspected the woman may have died from it. The county coroner's autopsy had concluded she died of acute liver failure caused by chronic acetaminophen toxicity.

State health officials had her tissue samples tested for the organism and the tests came up negative.

Three days after Josue Montes' death, the county Department of Public Health issued a release advising residents to consider taking precautions to reduce the risk of contracting the parasite while swimming in freshwater lakes. Officials recommended avoiding activities in warm freshwater bodies and to hold the nose shut or clipped when engaging in such activities.

Lake Elsinore spokesman Mark Dennis said the city distributed fliers about the amoeba, its threat and precautions at various points around the lake and the information was posted on the city's Web site.

"In both cases, a family has lost a family member and they don't know why, and they want answers," Dennis said. "It's tragic that anyone would lose their life. We don't know the relationship of this situation (the Montes death) to the lake. The health authorities said exactly that in their news release. It can't be said that there is a cause and effect."

Contact Michael J. Williams at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2635, or mwilliams@californian.com.