After the death of a 26-year-old man with amoebic meningoencephalitis in Thiruvananthapuram in July, six more people in the district have been diagnosed with the brain-infecting disease. The Health Department had traced the others after investigating the source of the deceased man's infection, and testing a sample of their cerebral spinal fluid when they began showing symptoms such as headache and neck pain. Two more people are under observation, while their samples are being tested.
All of these people, except one, had come in contact with the contaminated pond which had infected the deceased man. The Kavinkulam pond in the Athiyannur panchayat in Neyyattinkara is believed to have contained the amoeba -- Naegleria Fowleri -- which causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis or PAM. It is a lethal disease which infects the brain and has a fatality rate of 97%. The amoeba enters the affected persons through the nose and travels to the brain through the olfactory nerve. Death occurs usually within a week of infection. In Kerala, 15 cases have been diagnosed so far this year, Health Minister Veena George said on Wednesday, August 7.
A press release from the Health Department on Wednesday said that 33 people were found to have come in contact with the Kavinkulam pond water. A team from the department has since intensified preventive measures.
Special guidelines for the disease were issued by the Health Department in July after five infections were found across the state in less than two months, which in itself was a rare occurrence. The disease, which mostly affects adolescents and rarely young persons in their early 20s, only infects one in 26 lakh people. However, 15 cases have been diagnosed so far this year in Kerala. The infection in a 26-year-old man in Thiruvananthapuram and the subsequent cases, is highly unusual. The man died on July 23, even as two of the earlier cases of children with PAM had shown signs of recovery, after early diagnosis.
