A case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis caused by Naegleria fowleri in Bangladesh

Hossain M S Sazzad; Stephen P Luby; James Sejvar; Mahmudur Rahman; Emily S Gurley; Vincent Hill; Jennifer L Murphy; Shantanu Roy; Jennifer R Cope; Ibne K M Ali

doi:10.1007/s00436-019-06463-y

A case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis caused by Naegleria fowleri in Bangladesh

Parasitol Res. 2020 Jan;119(1):339-344. doi: 10.1007/s00436-019-06463-y. Epub 2019 Nov 16.

Authors

Hossain M S Sazzad^{1

2}, Stephen P Luby^{3

4}, James Sejvar⁵, Mahmudur Rahman⁶, Emily S Gurley^{3

7}, Vincent Hill⁵, Jennifer L Murphy⁵, Shantanu Roy⁵, Jennifer R Cope⁵, Ibne K M Ali⁸

Affiliations

¹ International Center for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh. sazzad@icddrb.org.
² The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. sazzad@icddrb.org.
³ International Center for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh.
⁴ Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁵ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop H23-9, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA.
⁶ Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁷ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁸ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop H23-9, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA. iali@cdc.gov.

PMID: 31734864
DOI: 10.1007/s00436-019-06463-y

Abstract

We present the first recognized case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) caused by Naegleria fowleri in a 15-year-old male from Bangladesh. He performed daily nasal rinsing with untreated ground water and bathed in untreated ground water or river water, which likely exposed him to N. fowleri.

Keywords: Ablution; Encephalitis; Free-living ameba; Genotype; Meningitis; Naegleria fowleri; PAM; Primary amebic meningoencephalitis; Ritual rinsing.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Animals
Bangladesh
Central Nervous System Protozoal Infections / parasitology*
Fatal Outcome
Fresh Water / parasitology
Humans
Male
Naegleria fowleri / isolation & purification*