Vietnam: Fatal cases of Naegleria Fowleri infection

[Ronan Kelly]

Last update 31/08/2012 5:00:00 CH (GMT+7)
VietNamNet/VNS

Man succumbs to brain-eating amoeba
VietNamNet Bridge ? A 25-year-old man from Phu Yen Province died last month after contracting an infection from the so-called brain-eating amoeba, a climate-sensitive, single-celled organism found in warm freshwater lakes and rivers, the HCM City Tropical Hospital has reported.
The microscopic amoeba, otherwise known as Naegleri Fowleri, enters the body through the nose and develops rapidly, according to Dr Nguyen Hoan Phu, deputy head of the hospital's infectious-disease ward.
It migrates through the olfactory nerve to the brain, causing headaches, a high fever and possible loss of behaviour control.
The man, who had moved to HCM City to earn a living as a peanut seller, began to get a headache and fever after he returned to HCM City following a break in his hometown.
On July 29 he was brought to Gia Dinh People's Hospital, which identified the presence of the amoeba.
One day later, as his condition worsened, the hospital transferred him to the city's Tropical Hospital. His fever was 40 degrees Celsius until the day he died on July 31.
...
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/26396/man-succumbs-to-brain-eating-amoeba.html

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Friday, Aug 31, 2012, Posted at: 13:42(GMT+7)
Brain-eating amoeba infection not a threat: Doctors
Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, director of the Tropical Diseases Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, assured the public on August 30 not to be worried about ‘Naegleria Fowleri’, the brain-eating amoeba, after one man succumbed to the infection recently.


The Tropical Diseases Hospital had admitted the 25-year-old male patient with high fever, respiratory problems and unconsciousness.

Doctors suspected the patient had been infected with a kind of amoeba as he said he had caught a few days before while trying to catch fish in a pond in his hometown.

A day later he felt ill and blood tests proved the presence of a brain-eating amoeba.

Dr. Chau said that this is the first case of its kind in the country. According to the patient’s blood samples, experts announced the presence of a brain-eating amoeba as being the cause of his death.
...
http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Health/2012/8/102583/

 

[alert]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Published Date: 2012-09-10 15:57:12
Subject: PRO/EDR> Amebic meningoencephalitis, primary - Viet Nam (02): (PY) comment
Archive Number: 20120910.1288827

AMEBIC MENINGOENCEPHALITIS, PRIMARY - VIET NAM (02): (PHU YEN), COMMENT
***********************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: Mon 10 Sep 2012
From: Steve Berger [edited]


To date, infection by free-living amoebae has not been described in Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia. Thailand reported its 1st case of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in 1983, and by 1987, an additional 5 cases had been reported. 22 cases were reported up to 2004: 10 due to _Naegleria fowleri_, 11 Acanthamoeba, and one _Balamuthia mandrillaris_.

A study performed during 2001 to 2004 found that amoebae accounted for 2 percent of ulcerative keratitis cases in Bangkok; and as of 2005, Acanthamoeba, Naegleria, Hartmanella, Vahlkampfia and Vannella had been identified in soil and water samples from 14 provinces. [1,2]

References:
1. Berger SA. Infectious Diseases of Thailand, 2012. 496 pages, 164 graphs, 2316 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infectious-diseases-of-thailand/.

2. Berger SA. Free-living Amoeba: Global Status, 2012. 24 pages, 1 graph, 368 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/free-living-amoeba-global-stat= us/.

--
Dr Steve Berger
Geographic Medicine
Tel Aviv Medical Center
Israel


[ProMED thanks Steve Berger for this background information which supports our guess that free living amoebae are ubiquitous if the environmental conditions are right. - Mod.EP]

[_Balamuthia mandrillaris_ ameba:
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/OrganSafety/OrganSafety_355px.jpg - Mod.JW

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

[Source: Thanhnien, full text: (LINK).]

Brain-eating amoeba claims 2nd victim in Vietnam



‎18 September ‎2012

Doctors in Ho Chi Minh City said that a six-year-old boy has become the second person to be killed recently by a rare disease caused by a brain-eating amoeba.
​

- ------

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Thursday, Sep 20, 2012, Posted at: 15:26(GMT+7)
Brain-eating amoeba claims second victim
The Department of Health in Ho Chi Minh City on September 19 confirmed the death of a six-year-old boy from Binh Tan District from the deadly brain-eating amoeba.

The young boy was already a mentally retarded child, having suffered from complications of cerebral hemorrhage, bleeding from a ruptured blood vessel in the brain, heart attacks and epileptic fits soon after birth. He was not living with his family but was alone and being taken care of by a servant.

Doctors at the Tropical Diseases Hospital in HCMC applied a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to test the boy?s blood samples and confirmed he was infected with the brain-eating amoeba.

On August 12, the six-year-old boy succumbed to the disease.
...
http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Health/2012/9/102779/

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Last update 21/09/2012 10:02:16 (GMT+7)

Boy who died of brain-eating amoeba 'might be infected from the air'
VietNamNet Bridge - Dr. Phan Van Hieu, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Centre of Forensic Medicine, said the Saigon boy who recently died of brain-eating amoeba, had no contact with rivers and lakes, so he might be infected with the parasite from the air.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/so...-amoeba--might-be-infected-from-the-air-.html

Or maybe contaminated bathing water??? - Ro

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

Re: Vietnam: Fatal case of Naegleria Fowleri infection

:tiphat: ironorehopper

Brain-eating amoeba not airborne, says health official
Last Updated: Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:35:00


An official from the Health Ministry has rejected speculation that Vietnam?s second victim of a rare brain-eating amoeba contracted the organism via the air.
A report on VnExpress Friday quoted Dr. Luong Truong Son, deputy chief of the National Institute of Malariology Parasitology and Entomology, as saying that the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri,which causes a deadly brain inflammation and nervous system disease known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, ?surely? only lives in warm freshwater.

It also depends on water to move like jellyfish, Son said. ?Naegleria fowleri can?t live in the air. It can?t live in water with cool temperature or salty water, either.?
...
http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/P...ba-not-lives-in-air-says-health-official.aspx

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Vietnam: Fatal cases of Naegleria Fowleri infection

:tiphat:ironorehopper

Vietnam's 2nd case of deadly brain-eating amoeba still puzzling
Last Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2012 04:10:00


Doctors in Ho Chi Minh City have revealed surprising findings about Vietnam?s second case of a rare brain-eating amoeba, but much about the recent death is still a mystery.
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, Dr. Phan Van Hieu, director of HCMC Center for Forensic Science, said the number of the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, in the brain of the six-year-old victim, and the extent of the damage to his brain, suggested that the organism had entered his body just over one week before he died on August 12.

However, diagnosis of an abscess ? a pus-filled cavity formed from inflammation in response to bacterial infection ? in the brain suggested that the brain could have been attacked by the amoeba for at least one month, Hieu said.
...
http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/p...eadly-brain-eating-amoeba-still-puzzling.aspx