Brain Eating Amoeba: South Korean Man Dies After Getting Infected

An amoebic infection killed a 50-year-old man from South Korea.

On Monday, South Korea reported a death case caused by an amoeba termed as 'brain eating amoeba.' The man who passed away was a 50-year-old man who had recently returned from Thailand. The man was apparently suffering from the symptoms for 10 days and on the tenth day he passed away.

According to reports, when the man was living in Thailand, he started experiencing symptoms like headaches, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and slurred speech. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) revealed that the man stayed in Thailand for four months before entering South Korea on December 10. After his death, the health authorities ran multiple tests to determine the cause after which they found out that it was due to an infection caused by Naegleria fowleri.

How Does It Infect Humans?

Experts say that this amoeba can infect humans when they go for a swim or dip their head in a freshwater body. According to reports, some people even got infected after cleaning their nostrils in contaminated water. Scientists haven't found any evidence of the spreading of Naegleria fowleri through water vapor or aerosol droplets. This amoeba travels up to their brain after it enters that human body through the nose. Once Naegleria fowleri goes to the brain, it destroys brain tissues and causes a dangerous infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), according to the CDC.

Climate Change Could Cause This Amoeba To Spread

Amoeba mainly thrives in freshwater bodies. The organism grows faster in places where the temperature is as high as 46 degree Celsius. They can even survive in much higher temperatures than that. Experts have been saying that the drastic climate change that has happened could be the major cause of this infection and in the near future this infection can spread.