Confirming the death of a 15-year-old boy from Alappuzha who was under treatment for primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare brain infection caused by amoeba, Health Minister Veena George sought to allay fears about the communicable nature of the disease.
The Minister said there had been five such cases of PAM infection reported in the State so far and all of the affected had succumbed to the infection. The disease was earlier reported from Alappuzha in 2016, Malappuram in 2019 and 2020, Kozhikode in 2020 and Thrissur in 2022.
An official press note on Friday quoting the Minister said the disease-causing amoeba thrived in stagnant waters and entered the body through the nose, ultimately infecting the brain and leading to encephailitis, thereby known as ‘brain-eating amoeba’. It is a rare infection, affecting one in tens of thousands of people, she said.
