Brain-eating amoeba infection: Tamil Nadu health dept lists precautionary measures, tells officials to be alert
The public, particularly children, have been strictly advised not to wade in stagnant, polluted, or dirty water for swimming or bathing.
Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
CHENNAI: As cases of amoebic meningoencephalitis have been reported recently from Kerala, the state health department has instructed the district health officials to stay alert.
The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has issued a list of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the rare brain infection caused by a free-living amoeba found in contaminated waters.
Primary Amoebic Meningo-Encephalitis (PAM) is an almost invariably fatal infection of the brain by the eukaryote "naegleria fowleri" (also known as the "brain-eating amoeba") and is difficult to locate as it is microscopic.
The symptoms of the infection include meningitis-like headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, confusion, hallucinations, and seizures.
Kerala has reported four cases in the last two months, the latest being three days ago. All patients were reported to be minors, three of whom have already died.
A 15-year-old teen had reportedly died due to the infection in Alappuzha in July last year.
The public, particularly children, have been strictly advised not to wade in stagnant, polluted, or dirty water for swimming or bathing.
Local bodies have been instructed to keep the water bodies clean and restrict entry to them.
Additionally, sanitation should be ensured around stagnant water bodies, ponds, and lakes, the health department directed.
Officials have been asked to ensure swimming pools are adequately sanitised as per the public health guidelines.
The health department also advised that adequate chlorination should be maintained in the swimming pools owned by private or local bodies. Concerned local health authorities should ensure chlorination levels of more than two ppm in high-risk areas as the organism cannot survive in that environment.
Meanwhile, all government and private medical practitioners will be given an advisory to look out for suspected cases of amoebic meningoencephalitis based on the history and symptoms of patients. Suspected cases should be immediately referred to tertiary care centres for adequate management, the health department said.
