Primary Amoebic Menigoencephalitis

Naegleria Fowleri

• Free-living Amoeba
• Species: Acanthameba
• Thrives in warm, tepid fresh water
• Temperatures above 89° F
• Equatorial Regions

What is PAM?

• Causes necrosis and hemorrhaging  as it migrates
• Inflammation of the Meninges
• Rapid amoebic growth eventually results in death
• Signs and symptoms are very similar to bacterial meningitis
• Commonly known as the "Brain-Eating" infection

Pathology

• Intranasal inoculation and spread
• Release of enzymes and cytolytic proteins during Trophozoite phase
• Microglia initiates inflammatory response due to interactions with N.Folweri
• Breakdown of sphingomyelin, connective tissue, and structural proteins
• N.Fowleri Trophozoite ingests broken down matter through  its "food-cup"

HEMORRHAGING

• Olfactory bulb
• Cerebellum
• CNS
• Temporal and Orbitofrontal lobes
• Hypothalamus

Stage 1 Symptoms

• Severe frontal headache
• Fever
• Nausea
• Vomitting
• Immediately follow inocculation

Stage 2 Symptoms

• Stiff Neck
• Seizures
• Altered Mental State
• Hallucinations
• Coma

Fatality Rate

• Greater than 95%
• Only 3 out of 132 people infected have survived in the U.S.
• Those who do survive are often declared braindead

Risks

• Swimming in warm, freshwater
• Nasal Irrigation
• Some religious practices