A 14-year-old boy in India died Thursday from an infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba he contracted while swimming in contaminated water. The teen, named Midrul, had reportedly picked up 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 medics’ best efforts, he succumbed to his symptoms, marking the third amoeba-related fatality in the region in less than two months. The other victims were a five-year-old girl from Malappuram on May 21, and a 13-year-old Kannur girl who passed on June 25, the Economic Times reported. Midrul had reportedly been infected by Naegleria fowleri, the now-notorious brain-eating amoeba that swims up people’s noses and wreaks havoc upon their brains.
He had specifically suffered from primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a catastrophic condition that causes the destruction of brain tissue and the swelling of the brain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . This microscopic scourge is found worldwide in warm freshwater bodies, including lakes, rivers and even poorly-maintained swimming pools. It cannot survive in saltwater nor can it be spread from person to person.
Symptoms — which generally occur between one and 12 days after infection — initially comprise severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting before progressing to a stiff neck, seizures, and coma. The condition is fatal 97% .
