Fatal virus: 16-year-old boy dies from Naeglaria

Naegleria Fowleri strikes again

KARACHI: A 16-year-old boy, identified as Ahmed, a resident of Shanti Nagar area near the Sindh Hotel, died on Sunday in a private hospital where he was brought on July 22 with a complain of high fever and other symptoms of Naegleria Fowleri.

“The second death in the city from Naegleria Fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba, is because of the supply of un-chlorinated water,” said Dr Zafar Mehdi, spokesperson of a focal group for the control of Naegleria.

Earlier, it was speculated that Ahmed had gone to Keenjhar Lake but his parents clarified to The Express Tribune that their son had gone to Hawke’s Bay beach two weeks ago. However, the bacterium does not survive in seawater. Ahmed may have been infected while performing ablution at the neighbourhood mosque, said Ahmed’s father, Jamshed.

The samples taken from the second death have found that water in different parts of the city does not have the proper amount of chlorine required to kill the bacteria, said Mehdi, adding that chlorination of water is the only way to kill the germs of the deadly disease or use of boiled water for ablution, since the germ enters the body through the nose.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2016.