Malappuram: In a tragic incident a 5-year-old girl from Kerala died after being infected from a rare ‘brain eating amoeba’. The child reportedly got infected by a brain eating amoeba found in dirty water, after swimming in a pond that contained harmful pathogens. The incident took place in Kerala’s Malappuram district, wherein the child lost her life after battling with her infection for over a week at the hospital.

The child, a resident of Moonniyur panchayat in Malappuram, passed away on Monday night at the Institute of Maternal and Child Health in Kozhikode Medical College, after battling the disease for more than a week.

The child died after battling for life for over a week at hospital

As per a report, the girl fell ill after getting infected by the amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare brain disease triggered by a free-living amoeba commonly found in polluted water sources.

According to the medical experts, anyone contracts the infection when amoebae bacteria, present in contaminated water bodies, infiltrate the body through the nasal passages.

Sources claimed that after her swimming in a nearby pond in her village on May 1, the girl began showing symptoms like fever, headache, and vomiting by May 10. She was then taken to a hospital for treatment.

It is being said that despite receiving intensive medical care and being placed on a ventilator, the child failed to respond to treatment, ultimately succumbing to the disease. Although other children who swam in the same pond were monitored for infection, they were eventually discharged without any signs of illness.

This is not the first such case of death by ‘brain eating amoeba’. Similar cases of rare brain infection have been reported in the past, with the coastal Alappuzha district witnessing instances of the disease in 2023 and 2017. In 2023, a 15-year-old boy from the Alappuzha district lost his life to the same deadly infection, underscoring the severity of the condition.

As per the experts, this rare infection has a mortality rate of 100 percent and all individuals afflicted by this rare brain ailment have tragically met a fatal end.