Brain-eating amoeba claims 16-year-old’s life in city

A 16-year-old girl has become the second victim of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), caused by the dreaded single-celled amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri, at a private hospital in Karachi, said Sindh Health Department officials on Monday.

The victim was a resident of North Nazimabad who was taken to the Aga Khan University Hospital on May 30 with complaints of severe headache, high-grade fever, nausea and vomiting, said the officials, adding that the girl died on Sunday during treatment.

Experts say PAM is a rare and severe disease that causes inflammation and destruction of the brain and its linings, and is usually fatal. Dubbed as “brain-eating” amoeba or bug, N fowleri has claimed a second life this year in the city. Earlier, a 40-year-old resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar had succumbed to the disease at the Liaquat National Hospital in the first week of May.

“A young female student of 16 years who was a resident of North Nazimabad died at a private hospital in Karachi [on Sunday] due to infection caused by N fowleri. She was taken to the hospital on May 30 for treatment but could not survive,” said Dr Zafar Mehdi, a spokesman for the health department.

Dr Mehdi said N fowleri is usually found in rivers and lakes, and when water from these sources is supplied to citizens without proper treatment, the amoeba manages to infect people who ingest water through their nostrils or swim in untreated water.

The Karachi Water & Sewerage Board has been supplying untreated and non-chlorinated water to the people, resulting in N fowleri infection, he said, adding that the only way to prevent people from contracting this lethal disease is to supply them chlorinated water.

Dr Mehdi said that last month a 40 year-old resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar had died due to a brain infection caused by N fowleri, and samples of the water taken from the area indicated that no chlorine was added to the water.

Researchers from various local and foreign medical universities believe that N fowleri is present in people’s overhead and underground water tanks, hiding in the thick layers of mud accumulated at the bottom of these tanks, and whenever it finds a suitable temperature, it gets activated to infect the people.

They said the samples of water and sludge acquired from the underground and overhead water tanks revealed that N fowleri is present in most of the tanks across the metropolis, and whenever it gets a suitable temperature, between 35 and 45 degrees Celsius, the amoeba starts multiplying and makes it to the central nervous system of people.

“It is imperative that people clean their underground and overhead water tanks twice a year and also add chlorine to their tanks to kill microorganisms, especially N fowleri,” advised Dr Mehdi.