The public is deeply concerned about health and safety surrounding the brain-eating amoeba outbreak in Kerala. Sentiment reflects a complex interplay of frustration with local government responses, anxiety over water safety, and cultural biases. While many appreciate Kerala's strong health infrastructure aiding in early detection, there are growing calls for improved sanitation and preventive measures amidst fears that environmental factors and hygiene practices could worsen the outbreak.

Kerala Government

Local Health Authorities

Public Health Officials

I'll tell you the facts we know from infectious disease's pov.
There is a hypothesis called- ''Flagellate-empty hypothesis''.

Basically it states that,

N.   fowleri (the free living amoeba responsible for these cases)  success in increasing may be due 	to  decreased  competition  from  a  depleted  population  of  the  normal protozoal fauna (the normal non-pathogenic organisms found in our natural habitat). 

In  other  words, 
N.  fowleri thrives  in  the  absence  of  other  predators consuming its food supply. 

This depletion in the normal fauna is due to human disturbances such as thermal pollution (this parasite loves higher temp almost 42 degrees hence more cases in summer months..and hates sea water), man-made fresh water bodies/habitats that are unchlorinated/unfiltered increase N. fowleri abundance by removing their resource competitors.

Another point is, since awareness about this has increased among the medical fraternity in the past decade, we're able to suspect it and diagnose it as well (clinically and via laboratory medicine).

Three_Armed_Wrecker

Most of the Jwaram from the past may have gone undetected

Curious_Act7873

Many people died in the past too. They weren't diagnosed. Now we can easily diagnose the reason.

*dying

raath666

There are reports that climate change has affected the ambient temperature of ponds that make it easier for the amoeba to thrive. 

It is also possible that we are identifying and diagnosing the disease with precision nowadays compared to how such cases were probably recorded as fever deaths in earlier years.

Ladymagnifique

The number of frogs, crabs, snails and fish that I see in paddy fields and other water bodies have decreased by atleast 1000x in the last 20 years. This has also increased mosquitos. Is it possible this has caused an imbalance in the ecosystem that allows this Amoeba to thrive?

Fdsn

Many appoppans in my family and nearby homes died year ago with similar symptoms that of meningitis. I don't think its increased that much.

absurdist_dreamer

As someone who swims regularly, I am really worried

nerdy_ace_penguin

Reason parayuvanel pazhaya ponds, wells okke annually oke clean cheyum.. Ipo ath kuranju..

Swimming pools polum periodically cleaning valare kurav aanu.. (Njngal orikke trip poyapp pool property book cheythit aa pool clean cheyathenu njngal paisa kuracu vaangipichu)


Mostly ozhukkillatha vellam aanu issue.. Namde naatile thodukal aanelum same avastha cleaning illa plus waste adinj kedakanu.. 

Pinne nerathem undarnnirikkam diagnose cheyunathoke ipo alle? Athepole immunity enna sadhanavum vyathyasam undallo..

orukuprasidha_payyan

enjoy swimming in a flowing river, lake. don't get into trouble

AruthAbu

These amoebas causing Meningoencephalitis are thermophilic, which makes the recent rise in temperature after the rains in Kerala a favorable environment for them to thrive.

StarStuffDoc

Brain eating amoeba has been found in Kerala fresh waters. It's bad! It's a huge problem in Louisiana. Even found in small lakes

spider_doodle

From chorinated swimming pools? Is that true?

j_vap

ID / micro bg here and an hypothesis : the epitriad of host , environment and agent all has undergone changes . 
1. Climate change - like a comment earlier thermophilic driven increase of these amoeba . Another dreadful pathogen - a fungus ( candidozyma auris ) prevalence also has been linked to inc in global warming . Differentiating Growth characteristic is its ability to grow at 42deg cel instead of usual 37deg used for other candida . Would be interesting to see data from state on this bug. Extremely difficult to treat and mostly limited to Hosp acquired infections now . 
2. Improved  diagnostics - can’t understate the clinical and lab expertise we seem to have gathered over the last 1-2 years . Thanks to pandemic pcr capacity / expertise development ( think like ww2 bringing us antibiotics - pandemic meant we had more pcr access ). Also more cases are being suspected &gt; lumbar punctures done and csf specifically put under microscope or sent to pcr . My concern is quality of pcr runs - these are high fidelity systems and ideal would love to have transparency with the quality of workflows to keep a track of possible cross contaminations / false positivity .
3. Host related - that is where each case needs to be studied in detail . The activity linked to infection is missing in most cases . The cases in Kerala is being worked up and I hope we will get access to them from a good journal . 
What to do : 
Individual level - restrict risky exposures . The risk is more when the bed of the water body is disturbed . 
Community level - in whatever capacity you are : please talk , engage with policy makers to reflect issues like climate change or antimicrobial resistance esp in the manifesto of all sides in coming elections . 

These bugs are here to stay. Just like the pond we are on a bigger pond with more bugs like this waiting to emerge or re emerge . It’s time we take this seriously . 

Thank you

ohff

Pandathe vellam alla ippozhathe, moving water kuravaan, aalukal elaa vrithikedum puzhayilekku aan thallunne. Mazhayum kurava. So build up of amoeba and bacteria is high. Kure kaalam aayi.

Pinne pandum marichirikkaam, annu we didn't have enough tech or labs to find out. Now we are much adavanced, so aa maranam ith ee maranam ith ennu manasilaakunnu.

NB: People always complain pandonnum cancer ilaayirunnello enn. cancer vannu maricha aalukal, janthukal ivayude fossils vare nammlkku kiitiyittu und. Appozha.

BlueHippieJeans

Statistics don't tell the complete picture. Even today, deaths and infections are reported only from Kerala. It may not mean Kerala is the only affected state in the country.

Electrical-Repair-16

How can we prevent well water affecting from this?

ClientLogical8932

These are either mutated amoebas due to climate change or they migrated from somewhere else. Remember when an actress was fined for carrying Mullapoo into Australia? Rules like that exist to prevent invasive species, but still some slip through somehow.

gautify

These are new varients with much fatal power. And the temperature change too.

TraditionalBite3738

How do we make sure our well water and borewells are not contaminated?

Free_Dog7615

How do we get this dealt with? What can the authorities do to control the bacteria?

Impressive_Shop_5424

[deleted]

VS_Achuthananthan

Check this brain eating amoeba news in USA 🤯 initially I was thinking that it could be conspiracy to divert ppl from some main issue

raavaanan

con_fused_4ever

Also reporting, it makes people think it's very common. For example if media reports every cycle accident then, people think everyone is getting hit on cycle. Parents won't let kids on the cycle anymore. Can happen with anything.

Reddit-NC

My Assumption**:** Nowadays, there has been an increase in weekend trips to resorts. Most of these resorts may not clean the pool daily or take proper measures to ensure that the water is clean and safe. Yesterday, we were staying at a resort near Thrissur with my family, and they had a pool where no proper safety measures were in place. I didn’t allow my kids to swim and convinced them by explaining this. Surprisingly, many families were still letting their kids swim there.

sreekanth850

I chlorinate my swimming pool everyday after i heard this since

Most-Repair-8198

One of the most common comment that I have heard when people talk about someone who died in spite of being healthy is "ഒരു പനി വന്നതാണ്..ആള് പോയി..." This is one of those instances where fever happens to be the symptom of something undiagnosed and no one knew what to tell. Now we have names for these even when there are no symptoms- COVID, Nipah, etc.

Coming to survival - for every appoppan or ammomma you see who survived 80 years, there are 3 or 4 who died at a very young age, sometimes as an infant. In fact, the number of people who live longer are more because of modern medicine. Earlier, that was not the case.

External_Customer_77

Fuk bro . I just came back from goa and caught a cold and throat pain . We spent so much time in the pool . Im scared af rn 🤯

Ok-Coyote1311

I think the main culprit is the check dams in the river. There is one every few kilometres. In non rainy seasons there is no water flow due to this check dams and this stagnent water is the breeding fields of ameoba

deloader

There was a time when people worried more about drowning…

geminirodr

Infectious organisms are constantly changing and evolving naturally.

Rudios92

My mom told my dad to go check for brain eating amoeba in the water tank in our house when they came here for vacation. 
Check for amoeba. 
Okay.

Low_Nail298

Planning for a Wonderla trip . It will be safe right !?

double_kundi

Ok, let this sink in: did anyone blame climate change for Covid 19? The narrative was built around some Hollywood movie-like narrative about some lab leak. The only thing missing was Tom Cruise.

There are so many scientific research reports and documentaries on how the arctic and antartica melting has exposed permafrost which has brought millions of new bacteria and viruses back into active mode.

Butterflies and sparrows disappeared in the last 10 years. A million plant and animal species are facing extinction because of climate change. But we humans are busy fighting with each other over non-issues.

605_Home_Studio

Same thing as why are so many people suddenly dying of cardiac arrests. No! People have always died of cardiac incidents, but medical science has been giving more attention to vascular diseases lately  and also the fact that there are cctv cameras, mobiles along with social media means you’re actually seeing it happen more.

TimelyReason7390

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There’s brain eating parasites and bacteria all over the world. Good rule of thumb is to not get any up your nose, mouth, ears, or eyes.

ziggyfooled

arshadhere

So..kolathil kulichal ee roggam varan chance undo??

Splitinfynity

Afraid of getting into river and ponds !!! 
 It ends a swimming culture real issue

malayali-boy

I just watched this on TV in a short, two-minute segment - six deaths in a month.

Once again, it struck me how much we live in a hype-driven world. I was reminded of the COVID/Nipah days, when news channels would draw maps and report endlessly - even when the death count was just one or two.

We seem to have lost the ability to judge the true seriousness of different issues. Everything is reduced to sensationalism now.

VCamUser

Most likely it has been around forever just that we are finally able to diagnose and try even treating it. Also does not help our density and unplanned unregulated urbanisation

EagleWorldly5032

Dip all greens in salty water for at least 10 minutes.  
Check your well water as frequent as 6 months.  
Check local swimming pool / tank waters too.  
How else to prevent these?  Can others also throw their bit.

thousetcr

I have developed contamination ocd after dealing with all these..since Covid,nipah now this crap

Fancy-Yellow-5535

It’s always there in water but with climate change /flooding - we may see more cases

Life_Machine_9694

If it comes to my boy's hostel, poor guy gonna starve

harambe_-33

darkblueundies

I don’t think it’s much of a concern. It’s just that, because of better healthcare and social media, these issues are being reported more often. It’s good to make people aware of the danger, but there’s no cause for panic.

StrictTotal3324

For more information on this bacteria and how deadly it can be watch this video by Kurzgesagt 
https://youtu.be/7OPg-ksxZ4Y?si=3BD2NE4tKIArEpl-

Individual-Fail-9008

EfficiencyWorried398

Also known as BJP - Brain Jeopardizing Parasite

OrwellianDreams

Why so many weird biological shit happens in kerala?

EDIT: Why the downvotes? I'm just asking a genuine question.

Ashamed-One-Not

why do all sort of weird diseases first start in Kerala?

decipher_42

Man, this is scary. What are the measures to be taken for maintaining the well water without such presence? Bleaching doesn't work?

Tess_James

Amoebae's presence can be due to the presence of bacteria in water(Many Amoebae feeds on Bacteria)

So that well water is bacteria prone and it was contaminated by some other water source

notbatsid

Septic tanks in many Kerala houses isnt well sealed and they leak into ground water. There is little or no regulation and control on how they are built and maintained.   
With most people relying on well water or bore water, this will unfortunately become more common.

britolaf

Technical_Finish9875

Would applying bleach to clean the well from time to time n all help?  

What all ways would we be able to avoid such issues?

DioTheSuperiorWaifu

luzy__

Idk if it’s any help to anyone but kwa has got labs for testing drinking water in every district. Pls test your drinking water.

Tough-Collection5998

Don't open that can of worms. All our home wells are contaminated with everything from hospital waste to human shit from household septic tanks. Every day, most people in Kerala are drinking water with coliform bacteria...shit water, to put it plainly.

liyakadav

i read there was a three months old baby who got infected, how come?

Zealousideal_Tank824

Raven1104

How to ensure swimming pool won't have this?

Mundane_Baker3669

CarmynRamy

Kerala is grappling with an outbreak of amoebic meningoencephalitis, which has resulted in numerous cases and fatalities, prompting health officials to implement preventive measures.

Kerala Brain-Eating Amoeba Outbreak

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