Alarm in India’s Kerala as cases of ‘brain-eating’ amoeba rise | Health News

At the least 19 deaths and 72 infections of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba have been recorded this yr, greater than double in contrast with final yr.

Authorities in India’s southern state of Kerala have issued a well being alert after infections and deaths attributable to a uncommon water-borne “brain-eating” amoeba greater than doubled in contrast with final yr.

Officers on Wednesday mentioned Kerala had registered 69 instances of main amoebic meningoencephalitis because the begin of 2025, together with 19 deaths, following contact with the Naegleria fowleri amoeba. Three of the deaths have been recorded within the final month, together with that of a three-month-old child.

Final yr, there have been 9 deaths of 36 reported instances.

The amoeba, which doesn’t unfold from individual to individual, lives in heat lakes and rivers and is contracted by contaminated water coming into the nostril.

“Not like final yr, we aren’t seeing clusters linked to a single water supply,” state Well being Minister Veena George was quoted as saying by NDTV information. “These are single, remoted instances, which has sophisticated our epidemiological investigations.”

The Kerala authorities has begun chlorinating wells, water tanks and public bathing areas, and areas the place individuals are prone to bathe and are available in contact with the amoeba, NDTV reported.

‘Instances throughout the state’

Whereas numbers stay low, a health care provider who’s a part of a authorities process power to forestall the unfold, mentioned officers have been “conducting assessments on a big scale throughout the state to detect and deal with instances”.

“It’s worrying that new instances this yr have emerged from throughout the state, versus particular pockets previously,” Altaf Ali advised AFP information company.

In response to the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), infections are “very uncommon however almost all the time deadly”.

The well being company says it’s typically known as a “brain-eating amoeba” as a result of it may well “infect the mind and destroy mind tissue”. If it reaches the mind, the amoeba may cause an an infection that kills greater than 95 % of these affected.

The World Well being Group says signs embrace headache, fever and vomiting, which quickly progress to “seizures, altered psychological standing, hallucinations, and coma”.

Kerala’s first case of an infection was reported in 2016.

Since 1962, almost 500 instances have been reported worldwide, largely in the USA, India, Pakistan and Australia.