Battling a rare brain-eating disease in an Indian state

[Sanjeev]

On the eve of Onam, 45-year-old Sobhana was brought to hospital. The doctors prescribed medicines and sent her home. However, her condition worsened at an alarming rate: unease gave way to fever, fever to violent shivering, and Sobhana died on September 5. The cause was Naegleria fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba, an infection normally caught through the nose in freshwater and so uncommon that most doctors never see a case in their whole careers. In Kerala this year, more than 70 persons have been diagnosed. This single-cell organism, which often feeds on bacteria in warm freshwater, produces a near-fatal brain infection known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). It enters the body through the nose while swimming and quickly damages brain tissue.

 

[eLdavis]

Seventy persons already? This is becoming serious and the government needs to start taking specific measures to try and prevent more cases.