Claims of Chlorinated Water Exposed - Tiny single cell creature claims one more life

MN Report

KARACHI - Naegleria fowleri claimed one more life in the city, raising the death toll from `brain-eating’ amoeba to 11 across Sindh during the current year.

According to Naegleria Control Committee’s focal person, a 22-year-old woman of Orangi Town was admitted to a private hospital only a day before her death. As her condition was `serious’, she was put on a ventilator at the hospital’s intensive care unit. “The patient was admitted with fever, headache and vertigo in the hospital’s ICU where she breathed her last on Tuesday (July 28).

According to the official, she had been treated for meningitis at hospitals in her locality and was shifted to the private hospital only when her condition deteriorated.

The amoeba, a very small living creature that consists of only one cell, had claimed 14 lives last year and 33 over the past three years, thereby exposing the tall claims of authorities concerned that they had taken adequate measures to curb the lethal disease.

The amoeba survives on bacteria in warm waters, enters human brain through nasal cavity and eats up its tissues. It can be decimated only through proper chlorination or boiling of water.

A focal group set up by Sindh health department in May collected and tested water samples in different parts of the city. Their findings showed that water was not being chlorinated at over 90 per cent pumping stations of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.