Alarm in India’s Kerala as cases of ‘brain-eating’ amoeba rise

At least 19 deaths and 72 infections of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba have been recorded this year, more than double compared with last year.

Authorities in India’s southern state of Kerala have issued a health alert after infections and deaths caused by a rare water-borne “brain-eating” amoeba more than doubled compared with last year.

Officials on Wednesday said Kerala had registered 69 cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis since the start of 2025, including 19 deaths, following contact with the Naegleria fowleri amoeba. Three of the deaths were recorded in the last month, including that of a three-month-old baby.

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Last year, there were nine deaths of 36 reported cases.

The amoeba, which does not spread from person to person, lives in warm lakes and rivers and is contracted by contaminated water entering the nose.

“Unlike last year, we are not seeing clusters linked to a single water source,” state Health Minister Veena George was quoted as saying by NDTV news. “These are single, isolated cases, which has complicated our epidemiological investigations.”

The Kerala government has begun chlorinating wells, water tanks and public bathing areas, and areas where people are likely to bathe and come in contact with the amoeba, NDTV reported.

‘Cases across the state’

While numbers remain low, a doctor who is part of a government task force to prevent the spread, said officials were “conducting tests on a large scale across the state to detect and treat cases”.

“It’s worrying that new cases this year have emerged from across the state, as opposed to specific pockets in the past,” Altaf Ali told AFP news agency.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infections are “very rare but nearly always fatal”.

The health agency says it is often called a “brain-eating amoeba” because it can “infect the brain and destroy brain tissue”. If it reaches the brain, the amoeba can cause an infection that kills more than 95 percent of those affected.

The World Health Organization says symptoms include headache, fever and vomiting, which rapidly progress to “seizures, altered mental status, hallucinations, and coma”.

Kerala’s first case of infection was reported in 2016.

Since 1962, nearly 500 cases have been reported worldwide, mostly in the United States, India, Pakistan and Australia.