Brain-eating amoeba kills teenager after swimming in contaminated water – third death in 2 months

A 14-year-old boy in India died on Thursday from an infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba that he contracted while swimming in contaminated water.

The teenager, named Midrul, allegedly contracted the parasite while bathing in a pond in Kozhikode, Kerala, India Today reported. He was subsequently admitted to a local hospital on June 24 after contracting an infection.

Despite the best efforts of doctors, he succumbed to his symptoms. It was the third death caused by amoeba in the region in less than two months.

The other victims were a five-year-old girl from Malappuram, who died on May 21, and a 13-year-old girl from Kannur, the Economic Times reported.

Midrul was reportedly infected with Naegleria fowleri, the now infamous brain-eating amoeba that swims into people’s noses and wreaks havoc on their brains.

Specifically, he was suffering from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a devastating disease that causes destruction of brain tissue and swelling of the brain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This microscopic pest is found in warm freshwater bodies worldwide, including lakes, rivers and even poorly maintained swimming pools. It cannot survive in salt water and is not transmitted from person to person.

Symptoms, which generally appear between one and twelve days after infection, initially include severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, before progressing to stiff neck, seizures and coma.

In 97% of cases, the disease is fatal. Death usually occurs less than a week after the first symptoms appear.

To date, only five cases of PAM survivors are known in North America.

Unfortunately, climate change could cause contaminated water to become more common.

Scientists claim that rising temperatures in the waters of the northern United States are creating ideal conditions for the amoebas to thrive.