Global warming favors pathogenicity of the brain-eating amoebae
Document Type
Letter to the Editor
Department
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Abstract
With the global warming and extremely hot summers being witnessed throughout the globe in recent years, there are reports of increasing numbers of heat strokes, as well as an upsurge in the incidence of fatal encephalitis related with a group of Free-living Amoebae (FLA) so-called as the “brain-eating amoebae”.There is an established relationship between the recent trend of mercury rising with the incidences of patients affected by encephalitis caused by Naegleria fowleri in the US and south east Asia. This parasitic amoeba is known to assume a trophozoite form (infective state) in heated environment when the mercury touches between 42-45 C. Accidental entry of water deep into the nose initiates a cascade in the trophozoites that reach the brain by traversing the cribriform plate located at the root of the nose.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Anti-Infective Agents
Recommended Citation
Baig, A. M.
(2019). Global warming favors pathogenicity of the brain-eating amoebae. Anti-Infective Agents, 17(1), 2-3.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_bbs/803