KARACHI: Provincial health authorities on Tuesday confirmed the 11th death of the current year caused by the lethal Naegleria fowleri, also called ‘brain-eating amoeba’, in the province.
A 22-year-old woman from Karachi died at a private hospital where she had been under going treatment for Naegleria fowleri.
Read: Ninth Naegleria death in province confirmed
"The woman was a resident of Orangi Town," said Dr Syed Zaraf Mehdi on behalf of Department of Health's Naegleria Committee.
"The latest case brings the death toll as a result of Naegleria, commonly known as the ‘brain-eating amoeba’, to 11 in Sindh during the current year, eight of which were from Karachi," added Dr Mehdi.
Experts say just two out of hundreds of cases of the disease in its history had survived in the world.
The appalling rise in the frequency of deaths because of the deadly disease has exposed the authorities’ claims of taking adequate measures to curb the horrors of the germ, which has killed 33 people in the last three years.
Read more: ‘Millions at Naegleria risk as 41pc city areas get non-chlorinated water’
The lethal amoeba survives on bacteria in warm waters and enters into the human brain through nasal cavity and eats up its tissues and could only be decimated through proper chlorination or boiling of water.
Constituted by the government earlier in May this year, a focal group collected samples of water and its results showed more than half of the city was supplied with water chlorinated much less than the desired levels.
