By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Officials with the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) report another fatality due to primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) from infection with the brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.

brain eating amoeba
Naegleria fowleri
Image/CDC

The 20-year-old Yousuf Goth, Malir man is the thirteenth death due to this parasite this year in Karachi to date in 2019.

According to the Pakistani news source, The News, Director General Health Sindh Dr Masood Solangi said their teams of experts had started investigating the case and visited the residence of the deceased to interview his family, who informed him that he had gone to a local pool for swimming. He said the swimming pool without having any chlorination could have been a place where he contracted the deadly brain infection.

According to the CDC, Naegleria fowleri  is a free-living microscopic ameba, (single-celled living organism). It can cause a rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).

The ameba is commonly found in warm freshwater (e.g. lakes, rivers, and hot springs) and soil. Naegleria fowleri usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose. Once the ameba enters the nose, it travels to the brain where it causes PAM, which is usually fatal. Infection typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places, like lakes and rivers.

In very rare instances, Naegleria infections may also occur when contaminated water from other sources (such as inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or heated and contaminated tap water) enters the nose. You cannot get infected from swallowing water contaminated with Naegleria.