A man taking bath from a stream at Navaikulam village in Thiruvananthapuram in October, 2024, where a teenager who was diagnosed with rare disease amoebic meningoencephalitis had taken bath.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
Rising pollution of waterbodies in the State and the increase in ambient temperature could potentially be leading to increased amoebic concentration in waterbodies and the growing incidence of amoebic meningoencephalitis in the State, Kerala Health Minister Veena George has said in the State Assembly.
In a written reply to questions on amoebic meningoencephalitis, Ms. George said on Tuesday that the presence of amoeba had been detected in many samples of water from household wells, water storage tanks, pipe water supply, public wells, ponds and swimming pools that had been used by persons in whom amoebic meningoencephalitis had been confirmed.
The species that had been identified from various water sources through PCR included Balamuthia mandrillaris, Vermamoeba vermiformis, Paravahikampfika Francinae and Acanthamoeba. Of the PCR-confirmed cases, five cases were due to Naegleria fowleri, known as the brain-eating amoeba whereas in over 20 cases, the causative organism was Acanthamoeba.
She said that epidemiological investigations were being conducted into each of the cases of amoebic encephalitis.
Free-living amoeba was found in all waterbodies, especially in contaminated or stagnant water pools and it is likely that when the water temperature goes up, these amoeba also thrive in the water. People entering these waterbodies are at risk if the water enters their nasal tract.
She said that Granulomatous Amoebic Encephalitis caused by the ubiquitous free-living amoeba like Acanthamoeba which can also enter the body through skin wounds or the respiratory tract and reach the brain to cause infection.
Action plan
She said that the Health department had formulated an action plan based on the One Health principle to create awareness on amoebic meningoencephalitis and involving all local bodies and other departments to clean and maintain the waterbodies in the State.
Mass chlorination of wells had been initiated as a major campaign across the State and guidelines had been issued on how swimming pools in hotels, resorts, clubs and apartments had to be chlorinated on a regular basis and the level of chlorine that had to be maintained.
She added that the Health department had initiated several research studies related to amoebic meningoencephalitis, in association with Government Medical Colleges in the State.
Studies being conducted
“Microbiological profile of meningoencephalitis due to pathogenic free living Amoebae: A case series” was one such study jointly initiated by the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode medical colleges. The Kozhikode medical college has also initiated a study on the clinical and laboratory profile of people who had contracted the infection. “Integrating epidemiological profile and environmental surveillance with genomic sequencing to study the amoebic meningoencephalitis cases reporting to a tertiary care centre” was another study that researchers at Kozhikode medical college has initiated.
Institute of Advanced Virology and ICMR were also doing genomic sequencing studies of amoebic meningoencephalitis cases which were molecularly confirmed, Ms. George said.
Published – September 30, 2025 08:47 pm IST
