Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis: a case report
Cubero-Menéndez, O.; Cubero-Rego, D.
Revista de Neurologia 38(4): 336-338
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0210-0010 PMID: 14997458 Document Number: 580806
Infections of the central nervous system by free-living amoeba are a rare phenomenon around the world. They present as a necrotising haemorrhagic acute meningoencephalitis, with a fatality rate close to 100% or as granulomatous amoebic encephalitis with a chronic progression. We describe a fatal case of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis produced by Naegleria fowleri in an 8-year-old child, with a history of immersion in a freshwater reservoir 52 hours before death. Laboratory studies carried out before death did not enable a diagnosis to be reached while the patient was alive. Diagnosis was made in the course of the post-mortem examination, where the presence of amoeba trophozoites was identified.