Fowler's free amoeba infection, also known as 'brain-eating amoeba', was confirmed for the first time in Korea.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced today (26th) that Fowler's free amoeba infection was confirmed as a result of testing to confirm the causative pathogen of a sample of a patient who was emergency transported with symptoms of meningitis after returning to Korea after staying abroad.
The patient was a man in his 50s who had stayed in Thailand for 4 months. Symptoms started on the day of his return on the 10th, and he was transferred to the emergency room the next day, the 11th, and died 10 days later, the 21st.
The Agency for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a genetic test on three types of protozoa, the causative agent of amebic encephalitis, and detected the fowler free amoeba gene. confirmed that.
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Fowler's free amoeba is a protozoan that causes primary amoebic meningitis and leads to death when infected. It is found in fresh water and soil such as lakes, rivers, and hot springs around the world.
After being confirmed as the world's first case in Virginia, USA in 1937, 381 cases were reported by 2018, so the infection case itself is rare, but it is also called 'brain-eating amoeba' because the symptom progression after infection is fast and fatal.
This amoeba usually enters through the nose when swimming or leisure in a lake or river and moves to the brain along the olfactory nerve.
You can also become infected if you use water contaminated by nasal irrigation.
However, human-to-human transmission is not known.
Ji Young-mi, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “To prevent Fowler free amoeba infection, special care must be taken when traveling to areas where Fowler free amoeba has been reported, such as refraining from swimming and leisure activities and using clean water.”
(Photo = Twitter capture, provided by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Yonhap News)