Naegleria Claims One More Life – Claims of supplying chlorinated water exposed

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI- With one more death caused by Naegleria fowleri, also known as `brain-eating amoeba’, the number of people who lost their lives in the current year due to the lethal disease had reached to 10 in Sindh.

Such an alarming situation has exposed the tall claims of authorities that they had taken adequate measures for supplying chlorinated water to the citizens.

According to experts, the `brain-eating amoeba survives on bacteria in warm waters and enters into the human brain through nasal cavity and eats up its tissues and could only be decimated through proper chlorination or boiling of water.

It may be recalled here that the deadly disease had claimed 14 lives in 2014.

Giving details of the latest victim of the disease, Sindh health department’s Naegleria control committee’s focal person, Dr Zafar Mehdi, said that the deceased was a 25-year-old resident of Malir. He was admitted in `critical’ condition to a major private hospital on Wednesday (July 22) and put on ventilator, where he breathed his last the same day.

Confirming the 10th death of the current year caused by Naegleria fowleri, the provincial health authorities informed media on Thursday (July 23) that the patient was admitted with fever, headache and vertigo in the hospital’s ICU.” The victim was initially treated at some health facilities in his locality for meningitis and shifted to a private hospital of the city when his condition has started deteriorating, the official said.

He was the seventh victim of the dreaded disease in Karachi as three other people who died in the city’s hospitals were brought from Hub, Thatta and Umerkot, he added.