Health officials reported on Tuesday that the first patient with Naegleria fowleri in the province had passed away at Services Hospital.
Mustafa Shafique, 30, presented to the Services Hospital Emergency Department on day two with high fever, headache, and other symptoms consistent with the flu. Samples were taken by healthcare practitioners who suspected infection, and those samples were delivered to Chughtai Lab. On Monday, researchers at the Chughtai Laboratory discovered the notorious brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The patient passed away on Tuesday at the hospital.
Mustafa Shafique is just the fourth case of Naegleria fowleri in the entire country this year, but the first in the province. There have been three further reported cases in Karachi.
How people can catch Naegleria fowleri
People become infected with it when they inhale water containing the ameba. Getting one’s head submerged in a body of fresh water, such as a lake or river, is a common cause. When an amoeba infects a person, it first enters the nasal cavity, then moves along the olfactory nerves in the nasal mucosa, then crosses the cribriform plate, and eventually enters the brain. The infection has the potential to be fatal.
Naegleria fowleri, like many other free-living amebas, is susceptible to a novel class of medicines called miltefosine. Patients infected with Balamuthia4 and disseminated Acanthamoeba infection5 have also responded favorably to treatment with miltefosine. The public has been warned by healthcare professionals to take precautions against contracting it.
The amoeba that feeds on brain tissue can live in fresh water. Chlorine treatments should be routinely performed on swimming pools. Cleaning the water tanks in homes and businesses twice a year is recommended. Usman Gunj is a highly populated area in northern Lahore, and Dr. Abdul Rauf, a family doctor, recommended boiling water before using it for ablution.
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