‘Brain-eating’ amoeba claims third life in a month

KARACHI: The city health authorities on Friday confirmed another death caused by naegleria fowleri, commonly called ‘brain-eating’ amoeba, in the third such case within a month. Only five days ago, a victim had died at a private hospital of the same infection. This time 32-year-old Mohammad Adnan Yousufzai, a resident of Nasir Colony in Korangi, fell victim to naegleria fowleri, which causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The rickshaw driver hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suffered from the rapidly progressive illness with fever and headache. He was admitted to a private hospital with a stiff neck. He finally went into coma before being pronounced dead by doctors. “Adnan was admitted to a private hospital on June 21 in a ‘highly critical’ condition and put on a ventilator of the intensive care unit, where he died a day later. The hospital sent us confirmation today [Friday],” said a senior provincial health department official. Previously, two men, aged 22 and 39 years, belonging to the same locality in Gulistan-i-Jauhar died of the infection. The 22-year-old man belonged to Tando Allahyar district while the 39-year-old man hailed from Punjab. Officials added that like the previous two men, Adnan, had no history of swimming. The death of this year’s first victim was confirmed on May 27. Last year, the disease claimed three lives — a 14-year-old boy from Korangi, a 20-year-old man from New Karachi’s Godhra Colony and a 40-year-old man from Lines Area. The deadly disease had surfaced in the city with extreme lethality in 2012 when it claimed 10 lives. PAM is defined in medical literature as a rare but typically fatal infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba found in rivers, lakes, springs, drinking water networks and poorly chlorinated swimming pools. According to a research, only three cases have been reported so far in the medical literature of the world where patients suffering from this infection survived. Swimming in public pools with improper arrangement for chlorination is believed to be one of main causes of contracting the dreaded amoeba infection. The germs travel through the nasal cavity and only affect the brain. The illness attacks a healthy person, three to seven days after exposure to the contaminated water with symptoms of headache and slight fever, in some cases associated with sore throat and rhinitis (commonly called stuffy nose). The ages of the naegleria victims so far ranged from between four and 49 years. Published in Dawn, June 28th , 2014