Hunt goes on for killer amoeba

Press, 27 August 1977, Page 22

Hunt goes on for killer amoeba

NZPA staff correspondent Washington Amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare kut invariably fata! disease that has claimed several victims in New Zealand is being studied by doctors and researchers at the National Centre for Disease Control (C.D.C.) a - Atlanta. Georgia. The diease is caused by the microscopic Naeglerta fowled, one of many types of the amoeba, a microscopic single-cell organism found in fresh or brackish water. New Zealand victims have contracted the diease wnile swimming in mineral pools in the North Island The investigation at the C.D.C, which has been under way for almost 10 years, has been given added incentive by the deaths this summer of two teen-age American girls. They were the first cases in the United States in four years. In both instances the girls — one from North Carolina, the other from Texas — were reported to have been swimming ir> lakes or ponds. Symptoms include malaise. headache, loss of appetite. and vomiting, with the headache becoming progressively worse. The disease causes brain inflammation which ultimately leads to respiratory arrest.

Dr Dennis Juranek, the depute director of the C.D.C.’s parasitic diseases division, said there are onlx about 100 cases of the disease on record. Death had almost alxvays followed the onset of symptoms. He said he was aware of only two persons who had recovered from the disease — someone ir> Queensland. Australia, and another in England. Both were treated xvith enphoterilin B, a drug developed to treat fungal diseases In the last 15 years, cases have been reported from Virginia. Georgia, Florida, and Texas as well as from England. Czechoslovakia, Australia, and New Zealand. Because amoebic meningoencephalitis is so rare, it was not identified until 16 years ago. Researchers still face many riddles about the disease and the amoeba which causes it. According to Dr .Juranek, studies at Atlanta and several American universities are concentrated on the disease-causing organism. “We are trying to find out where the amoeba grows best, why, in what circumstances it multiplies best, how common it is, and why it strikes so rarely.” he said. Researchers were also trying to fathom why some people appear sus-

ceptible to the disease and others are not, and whether the disease is more likely to strike at particular times of the year. Dr Juranek said it was presumed that the organism entered victims mainly through the nasal cavities. The C.D.C. has had no direct contact with medical authorities in New Zealand but has read of Nexv Zealand cases in medical literature. In Wellington, a Health Department spokesman said that similar research work was continuing in New Zealand. The department. the National Health Institute, and the Medical Research Council had a continuing programme investigating the amoeba. While the amoeba responsible for the recent deaths in the United States was of the same genus as that responsible for the New Zealand deaths about 10 years ago, it was not necessarily the identical one, the spokesman said. General rules to be observed before swimming was allowed in hot pools in Nevx’ Zealand included the need to have the pool protected against run off from nearby soil and for bathers to be warned not to put their heads under the water if "-here was any doubt about its quality.