14-year-old boy miraculously recovers from deadly amoebic meningoencephalitis in Kerala

In a first for India, a 14-year-old boy from the Thikkodi district of Kerala, incredibly recovered from the deadly primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), who was being treated at the Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode.

According to Dr. Abdul Rauf, a consultant pediatric intensivist at Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode, only nine individuals worldwide have been documented to have survived the illness. The doctor said, "The child has now fully regained his health."

The boy's father said that the boy began exhibiting epileptic symptoms on June 30. He was brought to a Payyoli private hospital, where the physicians recommended that he be transferred to a facility with better amenities. Thus, the boy was shifted to a hospital in Vatakara, from where he was referred to Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode on July 1.

Suspecting that he had amoebic meningoencephalitis, the doctors at Kozhikode hospital began treating him right away. The same day, tests performed in the hospital lab verified the diagnosis. Samples were submitted to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, for additional confirmation, and the outcome was once again positive.

The boy was in the hospital room for the last six days after spending nine days in the intensive care unit (ICU). He was in the hospital for a total of 22 days. When the results of the second sample sent to Pondicherry came back negative, it was decided to discharge the child.

Three children in Kerala have died from the disease in the past two months: Fadwa (5 years) of Munniyoor in Malappuram; Dakshina (13 years) of Thottada in Kannur; and E P Mridul (13 years) of Ramanattukara in Kozhikode. Another youngster belonging to Payyanur in Kannur is in critical condition.

One in every 26 lakh people may contract amoebic meningoencephalitis, an extremely rare disease that affects people who come into contact with stagnant or running water.

There is no human-to-person transmission of the disease. It is brought on by an amoeba that gets into the brain through a few uncommon holes in the eardrum or in the tissue that divides the brain and nose. 97% of cases of amoebic meningoencephalitis result in death.

Because free-living amoebae can be found in freshwater, lakes, and rivers, they can cause amebic encephalitis, a rare but deadly infection of the central nervous system.

Acute symptoms of PAM often include fever, severe headache, photophobia, nausea, vomiting, abnormal behavior, seizures, and a changed mental status. PAM is often linked to a history of taste and smell abnormalities.

The exact path of treatment is currently unknown due to the disease's rarity and the dearth of scientific trials.

There is a very high death rate linked to PAM. Research has indicated that the case-fatality rate can reach 99%. The mean time from onset of symptoms to death was 5.3 days (range from 1 to 12 days), and the mean time from exposure to death was 9.9 days (range from 6 to 17 days).