LAHORE: The first suspected case of brain-eating amoeba – Naegleria – has been reported in Lahore, setting alarm bells ringing for the public as well as the health authorities.

As per the report of a private lab, a young patient has tested positive for Naegleria and was immediately shifted to the Services Hospital, where he was isolated for further investigations.

According to medical experts, the Naegleria fowleri is a free-living amoeba that causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a disease of central nervous system.

“Amoeboid movement seen, possibility of naegleria fowleri’, says the report of the lab that also informed the government-run Services Hospital’s management about the results.

The hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr Ehtisham Haque told the media that the patient had been showing symptoms, including headache and fever, for the last four days.

He said the patient’s history was being investigated for the confirmation of the Naegleria case.

A team comprising senior medical experts has been assigned the patient’s treatment, he added. Meanwhile, health department’s teams have started investigations separately.

An official says a team of the public health experts from the Lahore District Health Authority (DHA) visited the Services Hospital and found the patient unconscious.

The DHA team also visited the patient’s residence in Ichhra, where his family informed the doctors that he had recently been in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Lahore, with his friends.

The official said the family, however, told the team that the patient did not visit Karachi, where Naegleria cases have been reported recently.

The official said the DHA has formed more teams to expand the scope of investigations by inspecting all the swimming pools and the clean drinking water sources in the city.

He suggested the public should use chlorinated water for domestic use to avoid the risk of contracting the fatally infectious amoeba.

Since the it was a water-borne disease, the medical experts insisted on chlorination of all the tube-wells and other drinking water sources in the city on an emergent basis.

They also asked the parents to ensure preventive measures before sending their children and other family members to swimming pools in the city.

They also suggest the district government should disseminate awareness, urging the public to refrain from swimming in pools that have not been properly chlorinated.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023