Indian teenager among handful of people in world to survive rare brain-eating amoeba

A teenager from southern India is among a handful of people in the world to have survived a brain-eating amoeba that has already claimed three lives in the country.

Afnan Jasim, 14, from the coastal state of Kerala, was diagnosed with Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), a disease caused by an amoeba that invades the brain.

The Naegleria fowleri amoeba, commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba, is found in warm waters and only enters the body through the nose. Such cases are rare but cause a disease with a fatality rate exceeding 97 per cent.

There have been six known cases, including three deaths, from the disease in Kerala alone this year.

Just eight other people are known to have survived the disease across four countries: Australia, the US, Mexico, and Pakistan, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The symptoms of PAM are headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, a stiff neck, a loss of balance, seizures and/or hallucinations.

Afnan likely got infected in June after he went for a swim in a local pond with his friends in his hometown in Kozhikode district and began experiencing the symptoms five days later.

He began complaining of seizures and severe headaches before his parents took him to a doctor but his condition did not improve.

It was partly due to his father MK Siddiqui that his symptoms were linked to the disease after he chanced upon the information on PAM while reading about the Nipah virus that has caused a state-wide health alert.

Mr Siddiqui said he was reading about the Nipah virus that was behind the death of a teenager in the state when he read about the brain-eating amoeba.

“While scrolling through social media, I came across news about a brain-eating amoeba and how children swimming in ponds were getting infected. Also, no one in the family has any history of epilepsy. So I told the doctor that my son swam in a local pond four days ago, the doctor took note,” Mr Siddique told The Indian Express.

He took his son to Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode after the seizures didn’t stop and was treated by  Dr Abdul Rauf.

Dr Raul told BBC that the disease was diagnosed within 24 hours after the symptoms began.

The deadly amoeba thrives in warm freshwater and infects humans through the nose. After reaching the brain the amoeba causes inflammation and destruction of the brain tissue, making it crucial to diagnose and treat it early.

Studies carried out by the CDC on brain-eating amoeba suggest climate change could be behind a number of cases in northern US states.

Julia Haston, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC, previously told NBC News that rising air and water temperatures may be having an impact.

Dr Rauf said they have informed the government to issue a public health advisory and launch awareness campaigns.

The surge in incidents has forced the state health minister Veena George to order the first batch of miltefosine – a medicine used to treat such cases and is not easily available in India.

“It is the first time that medicine for this disease has been sourced from abroad. Additional batches of Miltefosine will arrive in the coming days,” she said in a statement.