KARACHI: A 22-year-old woman on Tuesday died from Naegleria fowleri, bringing this year’s death toll from the ‘brain-eating’ amoeba to 11 across the province.

The resident of Orangi was admitted to a private hospital only a day before her death. Since her condition was ‘serious’, she was put on a ventilator at the hospital’s intensive care unit. “The patient was admitted with fever, headache and vertigo in the ICU where she died today,” said a health official.

Officials said she had been treated for meningitis at health facilities in her area and was shifted to the private hospital only when her condition worsened.

Suffering from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) caused by Naegleria fowleri, the young woman was the ninth victim of the deadly disease from Karachi. Two other victims of the brain-eating amoeba were brought from Umerkot and Thatta to Karachi hospitals where they died.

The disease had claimed 14 lives last year and 33 over the past three years, exposing the authorities’ claims of taking adequate preventive measures to curb the disease.

The amoeba survives on bacteria in warm waters, enters human brain through nasal cavity and eats up its tissues. It can be decimated only through proper chlorination or boiling of water. A focal group constituted by the government in May collected and tested water samples in different parts of Karachi. Their findings revealed that water was not being chlorinated at over 90 per cent pumping stations of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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