Diagnosis confirmed after hospital suspicion
A 10-year-old boy has died in Catamarca province from primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, an infection caused by the microorganism Naegleria fowleri, widely referred to as the brain-eating amoeba. He had been treated at the Hospital Interzonal de Niños Eva Perón, where the infectious-diseases team first raised the possibility of this diagnosis. The national reference laboratory ANLIS-Malbrán subsequently confirmed it through a real-time PCR analysis of a cerebrospinal fluid sample.[S1][S2]
Provincial health officials said the hospital's physicians had observed signs consistent with a Naegleria fowleri infection. Molecular testing proved decisive, they added, because the early symptoms of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis resemble those of bacterial meningitis, which complicates prompt identification of the disease.[S1][S2]
Hot springs shut as water is sampled
After the death became public, the Municipality of Fiambalá ordered the closure of the town's thermal complex. The provincial health ministry moved ahead with preventive measures at the site, and its teams are now collecting and analyzing water samples to determine whether the microorganism is present. Results from the broader sampling effort are still being processed.[S1][S2]
As part of the epidemiological investigation, technical teams are retracing where the boy may have encountered environments suited to the amoeba. Their review covers the 12 days before his symptoms began, a window matching the documented incubation period for this infection. Specialists have taken samples from water and surfaces in the locations identified by relatives and people close to the child.[S1][S2]
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No other cases and no person-to-person risk
The epidemiological assessment so far has found no other linked cases, and health authorities describe the episode as isolated. The ministry ruled out any transmission risk for family members, household contacts and health personnel, since Naegleria fowleri does not pass from one person to another. Officials pledged to announce any development in the inquiry, and any measures that follow, through official channels.[S1][S2]
Naegleria fowleri is a free-living single-celled organism found in warm freshwater such as lakes, rivers, hot springs and poorly maintained pools, as well as in soil. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infection occurs only when water carrying the amoeba enters through the nose, typically during recreational water activities. The organism can then travel along nerve fibers in the nasal cavity and through small openings in the skull to reach the brain. It is not acquired by drinking contaminated water.[S1][S2]
Infections of the brain linked to N. fowleri generally follow swimming or diving in lakes, rivers or other freshwater bodies during summer. Extended hot spells can raise water temperatures and lower water levels. Cases have also been recorded involving tap water containing the amoeba used to rinse the nasal passages or for religious nasal washing. The resulting disease is very uncommon: fewer than 500 cases have been reported globally since 1962, and the mortality rate stands at about 95%.[S1][S2]
