As reported recently by the World Health Organization, a brain-eating amoeba has become a cause of the deaths of ten people in Pakistan. Tuesday, Musa Khan, Disease Early Warning System’s in charge said that from March to September, the virus has accounted for these deaths in Karachi.
Karachi is the largest city in the country, as per the report, which has been seeing a campaign following the deaths. The campaign has been organized by municipal authorities with an aim to guarantee supply of clean water to all residents.
Since, the concerns, related to the waterborne parasite or brain-eating amoeba, are high. It has been told that Naegleria fowleri, the amoeba, which lives in dirty and warm water, can cause symptoms such as stiff neck, nausea, fever and headaches and even vomiting.
However, the occurrence of the same is very rare; the bug may also lead to infection of the human nervous system or Primary Amoebic Meiningoencephalitis, in case not treated timely. Victims are highly likely to die within a period of five to seven days also.
“Previously, doctors did not have awareness and used to treat cases of the disease as bacterial meningitis. Now they test the patients for naegleria”, informed the head of Indus Hospital’s infectious diseases department Dr. Naseem Salahuddin.