Man with brain-eating amoeba recovers

Kolkata: Doctors at Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER) have managed to save the patient, who was suffering from a rare infection of the central nervous system, caused by Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as ‘brain-eating amoeba.’ In scientific terms, the condition is called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) and has a mortality rate higher than 90%. The patient, Dipankar Bhowmik of Howrah, was discharged from the critical care unit on Monday. He was admitted to the hospital on Jan 6 with symptoms of acute encephalitis.He will be kept under observation in the ward for next few days before being sent home. The amoeba is found in contaminated water and it enters the human body through the nasal passage, experts said. A team of doctors including Sugata Dasgupta, Samarendra Samui, Atanu Biswas, Aniruddha Chatterjee and Alakes Kumar Kole treated the patient.