Primary amebic encephalitis (PAM) is a devastating central nervous system infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba, which can survive in soil and warm fresh water. Here, a 43-year-old healthy male was exposed to warm freshwater 5 days before the symptom onset. He rapidly developed severe cerebral edema before the diagnosis of PAM and was treated with intravenous conventional amphotericin B while died of terminal cerebral hernia finally. Comparing the patients with PAM who has similar clinical symptoms to those with other common types of meningoencephalitis, this infection is probably curable if treated early and aggressively. PAM should be considered in the differential diagnosis of purulent meningoencephalitis, especially in patients with recent freshwater-related activities during the hot season.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Enlightening the promising role of nanoparticle-based treatments against Naegleria fowleri-induced primary amoebic meningoencephalitis: A brain-eating disease Sunita Jhulki, Biplab Bhowmik, Aparajita Pal Microbial Pathogenesis.2025; 199: 107234. CrossRef
Naegleria fowleri Infections: Bridging Clinical Observations and Epidemiological Insights Carmen Rîpă, Roxana Gabriela Cobzaru, Miruna Raluca Rîpă, Alexandra Maștaleru, Andra Oancea, Carmen Marinela Cumpăt, Maria Magdalena Leon Journal of Clinical Medicine.2025; 14(2): 526. CrossRef
Naegleria fowleri: An Amoeba That Eats your Brain Siddhi Suhas Shinde, Anuradha Prajapati, Sachin B. Narkhede, Shailesh Luhar Research Journal of Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms and Technology.2025; : 37. CrossRef
Amoebicidal effect of chlorine dioxide gas against pathogenic Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba polyphaga Hae-Jin Sohn, A-Young Park, Jeong-Heon Lee, Kyu-Hwa Yun, Kyoung-Ju Song, Jong-Hyun Kim, Ho-Joon Shin Parasitology Research.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
A scoping review on epidemiology and pathogenesis of death due to primary amoebic meningoencephalitis Krishneswari Rajasekharan Nair Saraswathy International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health.2024; 12(1): 598. CrossRef
Systematic Review of Brain-Eating Amoeba: A Decade Update Mohd ‘Ammar Ihsan Ahmad Zamzuri, Farah Nabila Abd Majid, Massitah Mihat, Siti Salwa Ibrahim, Muhammad Ismail, Suriyati Abd Aziz, Zuraida Mohamed, Lokman Rejali, Hazlina Yahaya, Zulhizzam Abdullah, Mohd Rohaizat Hassan, Rahmat Dapari, Abd Majid Mohd Isa International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2023; 20(4): 3021. CrossRef
Distribution and Current State of Molecular Genetic Characterization in Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae Alejandro Otero-Ruiz, Leobardo Daniel Gonzalez-Zuñiga, Libia Zulema Rodriguez-Anaya, Luis Fernando Lares-Jiménez, Jose Reyes Gonzalez-Galaviz, Fernando Lares-Villa Pathogens.2022; 11(10): 1199. CrossRef
Photolysis of sodium chloride and sodium hypochlorite by ultraviolet light inactivates the trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba castellanii in the water matrix Beni J. M. Chaúque, Marilise B. Rott Journal of Water and Health.2021; 19(1): 190. CrossRef
Drugs used for the treatment of cerebral and disseminated infections caused by free‐living amoebae Alexandre Taravaud, Zineb Fechtali‐Moute, Philippe M. Loiseau, Sébastien Pomel Clinical and Translational Science.2021; 14(3): 791. CrossRef
Death From Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis After Recreational Water Exposure During Recent Travel to India—Santa Clara County, California, 2020 Glenn R Harris, Ellora N Karmarkar, Rebecca Quenelle, Lyndsey Chaille, Jai Madhok, Vivian Tien, Jyoti Gupta, Seema Jain, Maria Liu, Shantanu Roy, Supriya Narasimhan, Akiko Kimura, Jennifer R Cope, Ibne Karim M Ali Open Forum Infectious Diseases.2021;[Epub] CrossRef
Various brain-eating amoebae: the protozoa, the pathogenesis, and the disease Hongze Zhang, Xunjia Cheng Frontiers of Medicine.2021; 15(6): 842. CrossRef
Understanding the true burden of “Naegleria fowleri” (Vahlkampfiidae) in patients from Northern states of India: Source tracking and significance Ashutosh Panda, Bijay Ranjan Mirdha, Neha Rastogi, Samander Kasuhik European Journal of Protistology.2020; 76: 125726. CrossRef
A Fatal Case of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) Complicated with Diabetes Insipidus (DI): A Case Report and Review of the Literature Muhammad Zain Mushtaq, Saad Bin Zafar Mahmood, Adil Aziz Case Reports in Infectious Diseases.2020; 2020: 1. CrossRef