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Health and Environment News Ticker Pakistan

Naegleria Fowleri Claims Year’s First Life in Karachi

KARACHI: A 21-year-old teenager lost his life on Saturday due to the Naegleria fowleri-‘brain-eating’ amoeba, admitted at Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital.

Dr Seemi Jamali in a statement said:  “A 21-year old student from Orangi Town, Anas Aslam, was brought to JPMC with high-grade fever and other complaints. Doctors suspected meningitis and the patient was shifted to ICU on the deterioration of his health. He died yesterday due to complications of the disease.”

He was a resident of Orangi Town in Karachi, the doctor further said.

Naegleria fowleri infects people when water containing the amoeba enters the body through the nose. This typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places, like lakes and rivers. The Naegleria fowleri amoeba then travels up the nose to the brain where it destroys the brain tissue, experts say.

According to infectious diseases experts, one cannot be infected with Naegleria fowleri by drinking contaminated water adding that Naegleria infections occur when contaminated water from other sources (such as inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or contaminated tap water) enters the nose, for example when people submerge their heads or cleanse their noses during religious practices, and when people irrigate their sinuses (nose) using contaminated tap water.

As per a recent study conducted by experts in Karachi and Saudi Arabia, Naegleria fowleri’s colonies have been found in the mud accumulated in the overhead and underground tanks of water in Karachi and as soon as weather conditions become favourable, they start growing and multiplying in huge numbers, posing a serious health threat to people who use non-chlorinated water.

Researchers say large colonies of Naegleria fowleri are present in the thick layers of mud accumulated in the overhead and underground tanks of the apartment buildings, homes and mosques in the city, spelling a major potential public health hazard.

Similarly, other experts have claimed that environmental pollution in Keenjhar Lake and the Hub Dam – where most of Karachi’s water comes from – has also increased the presence of Naegleria fowleri in fresh water. But, the city’s water utility has taken no steps to chlorinate the water before it is supplied, which is the most effective way of killing microorganisms.