A man in Pakistan died from a suspected “brain-eating amoeba” this week after he swam in a pool.
The 30-year-old man came down with a headache and fever for four days after his swim in Lahore. He spent one day in the hospital before dying from a heart attack, according to The Telegraph.
Health authorities are working to confirm the man’s death was facilitated by Naegleria fowleri, the amoeba’s scientific name.
It would be the first case of the amoeba detected in Lahore.
The microscopic, single-celled organism is typically found in warm bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers and hot springs.
“It gets into the nostrils while we’re swimming and then the amoeba penetrates the cribriform plate into the brain,” Sutherland Maciver, who studies the organism at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told the media outlet New Scientist. “It’s called the brain-eating amoeba, which is a lurid, but fairly defendable, nickname.”
The amoeba causes meningitislike symptoms and destroys the brain tissue. Mr. Maciver said the disease has a 96% fatality rate.
In May, three people died from the organism in Karachi, Pakistan, according to Outbreak News Today.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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