Sindh health authorities have confirmed the 10th death of the current year caused by the lethal Naegleria fowleri, also called ‘brain-eating amoeba’.
A 25-year-old man in Karachi’s Malir neighbourhood was the latest victim of Naegleria fowleri that caused primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The patient was admitted in ‘critical’ condition to a private hospital and put on ventilator of an intensive care unit on Wednesday, where he died the same day. The authorities confirmed the death on Thursday.
“The patient was admitted with fever, headache and vertigo in the ICU,” said a health department official.
He was the seventh victim of the deadly disease of Karachi. Three other people who died in hospitals of Karachi were brought from Umerkot, Thatta and Hub.
The deadly disease killed 14 people last year. Experts say just two out of hundreds of cases of the disease in its history had survived in the world.
The lethal amoeba survives on bacteria in warm waters and enters into the human brain through nasal cavity and eats up its tissues and could only be decimated through proper chlorination or boiling of water.
