Third resident of Karachi’s district Central falls prey to brain-eating amoeba in a fortnight

KARACHI: Amid persistent failure of the provincial government to plug gaps in the water distribution system and ensure provision of proper chlorinated water to consumers, another man died of Naegleria fowleri, commonly called brain-eating am­o­e­ba, in district Central, raising the death toll from the deadly infection to 11 this year.

The latest victim was a 45-year-old man, who was reported with high fever, body pai­ns and vomiting at a private healthcare facility.

Sources said it’s the second death within a week and third mortality in less than two weeks.

All the victims were residents of district Central and had no history of swimming. The latest victim lived in the Buffer Zone area.

“This suggests that the patients might have contracted the deadly infection while rinsing nasal passage,” a health department official shared.

Health department orders collection of water samples from Buffer Zone to detect presence of deadly amoeba

According to him, none of the water samples so far tested from the affected localities where the last 10 mortalities have been reported showed traces of chlorine.

“There could be multiple reasons for that contamination, including lack of chlorination, at different levels in the supply system. We know for sure that water tanks at homes and in high-rises are rarely cleaned, providing a favourable environment for the germs to thrive. Besides, there could be seepage in lines that could contaminate the water supplies,” he said.

A statement released by the health department stated that directives had been given to town surveillance coordinator to collect water samples from the area in order to detect the presence of the deadly amoeba in water on the insistence of the victim’s family.

It also urges the general public to exercise caution in nasal rinsing.

Popularly known as ‘brain-eating amoeba’, Naegleria fowleri is responsible for the disease called Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM). The infection is fatal in 98 per cent of the cases. Proper chlorination of water is the only prevention against the illness as it kills the germ.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023