KARACHI: A 36-year-old woman died in the Pakistani city of Karachi last month after contracting Naegleria fowleri, a health official confirmed on Monday, marking the first death this year from the deadly brain-eating amoeba.
Naegleria fowleri has a fatality rate of more than 98 percent. It is transmitted when contaminated water enters the body through the nose and cannot be passed person-to-person.
Pakistan has seen a rise in Naegleria fowleri cases in recent years, with over a hundred people dead since the first reported infection in 2008. Five people died from the infection last year.
Symptoms of Naegleria fowleri infection include severe headache, altered taste, high fever, light sensitivity, nausea and vomiting. Death usually occurs five to seven days after infection.
In the latest case, a woman was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 19 after experiencing symptoms and died four days later on Feb. 23.
“The presence of Naegleria fowleri was confirmed in the patient on Feb. 24, 2025 after the patient had passed away,” Sindh Health Department spokesperson Meeran Yousuf said in a statement.
“Upon investigation, it was noted that the patient had not participated in any water-related activities and her only exposure was regular use of water to perform ablution five times a day at home.”
Yousaf said this was the first death in Pakistan from Naegleria fowleri in 2025.
A 2021 study by the Sindh Health Department found that 95 percent of water samples in Karachi, the provincial capital, were unfit for human consumption, with experts attributing the contamination to the spread of amoeba.
