An 82-year-old man recently reported died days after catching a rare infection caused by free-living amoebas after being exposed to contaminated soil while gardening.
The elderly man was sent to a hospital emergency department after feeling weak for about two weeks. The man had a history of B-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer where he had been in remission for more than a decade.
Picture: Earl May
Reported that a day after admission, the man became weak on his right side, and has developed an “altered mental status”.
An MRI scan showed an abnormality in his left frontal lobe, but the man’s condition worsened by time and became drowsy and started having seizures, despite receiving treatment for bacterial, fungal, and viral meningitis.
The second scan reveals a large lesion in the temporal lobe two days later since he was admitted to the hospital. Nine days later, the man announced dead.
Following his death, an autopsy was done and showed “liquefactive necrosis” in part of his brain – the transformation into a liquid.
Picture: 7News
The founding also identified as an acanthamoeba species, which allowed doctors to diagnose him with granulomatous amebic encephalitis – a rare, and usually fatal, central nervous system disease caused by free-living amoebas.
Doctors said in the report, “The amoeba is transmitted through contact with soil or freshwater,”.
“Discussion with the patient’s wife revealed only exposure to the soil from potted-plant maintenance,”. It also not stated where the elderly man lived or had been hospitalised.
Source: 7 News
