Doctors are employing new techniques and drugs to combat devastating brain infections caused by brain-eating amoebas.
Over ten years ago, an 8-year-old boy in San Antonio was hospitalized after suffering from fever, headache, vomiting, and light sensitivity. Despite his mother taking him to several clinics in Mexico, his condition worsened, and he became unconscious. At the hospital, doctors found Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, in his cerebrospinal fluid. This was Dr. Dennis Conrad’s third encounter with such a case, and the previous two patients had died.
Dr. Conrad used an experimental drug, miltefosine, along with other medications in a desperate attempt to save the boy. Despite the grim prognosis, the boy survived, although he required extensive rehabilitation. This case marked a rare success, as the survival rate for N. fowleri infections is extremely low, with only four out of 157 confirmed U.S. cases surviving from 1962 to 2022.
N. fowleri thrives in warm freshwater and infects people when water is forced up the nose. The amoeba destroys brain tissue directly and indirectly through the body’s immune response. Most infections occur in Texas, Florida, and other southern states, but cases have been reported as far north as Minnesota, possibly due to climate change.
In recent years, doctors have been exploring new treatment strategies, including cooling patients’ body temperature. Researchers are also investigating new drugs, such as nitroxoline, which has shown promise in lab studies and has been used successfully in one case of a different brain-eating amoeba.
Raising awareness is crucial for early diagnosis and treatment. The Jordan Smelski Foundation for Amoeba Awareness, founded by the parents of a boy who died from the infection, aims to educate doctors and the public. Increased awareness has led to faster diagnoses and better outcomes in recent cases.