Glenn R Harris1, Ellora N Karmarkar2,3, Rebecca Quenelle4, Lyndsey Chaille3, Jai Madhok5, Vivian Tien6, Jyoti Gupta1, Seema Jain3, Maria Liu3, Shantanu Roy7, Supriya Narasimhan1, Akiko Kimura3, Jennifer R Cope7, Ibne Karim M Ali7. 1. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, California, USA. 2. Epidemic Intelligence Service, Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 3. California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California, USA. 4. County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, San Jose, California, USA. 5. Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. 6. Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. 7. Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In February 2020, a man returned to the United States after an 11-day trip to India and died of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), caused by nasal exposure to the free-living ameba Naegleria fowleri found in warm water. We identified potential exposures, confirmed etiology, and described the molecular epidemiology of the infection. METHODS: We reviewed medical records to describe his clinical course and interviewed his family to determine water exposures. Genotyping was performed on the N. fowleri strain and compared with North American strains through repetitive nonpolymorphic nuclear loci analysis to identify differences. We reviewed N. fowleri strains in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database (GenBank) to determine genotypes present in India. RESULTS: The patient became acutely encephalopathic 3 days after returning; the only known nasal water exposure was at an indoor swimming pool in India 5 days earlier. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing demonstrated neutrophil-predominant pleocytosis and low glucose, but negative gram stain and culture. CSF microscopy revealed trophozoites; N. fowleri was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Classical genotyping confirmed genotype I, common in the United States and among Indian strains in GenBank. The North American N. fowleri strains and the patient's strain varied at 5 nonpolymorphic loci. CONCLUSIONS: A man died from PAM after likely exposure at a vacation rental pool in India. We recommend including PAM in the differential diagnosis when CSF studies suggest bacterial meningitis but gram stain is negative. Genotyping can advance our understanding of N. fowleri molecular epidemiology and support future investigations. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America 2021.
BACKGROUND: In February 2020, a man returned to the United States after an 11-day trip to India and died of primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), caused by nasal exposure to the free-living ameba Naegleria fowleri found in warm water. We identified potential exposures, confirmed etiology, and described the molecular epidemiology of the infection. METHODS: We reviewed medical records to describe his clinical course and interviewed his family to determine water exposures. Genotyping was performed on the N. fowleri strain and compared with North American strains through repetitive nonpolymorphic nuclear loci analysis to identify differences. We reviewed N. fowleri strains in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database (GenBank) to determine genotypes present in India. RESULTS: The patient became acutely encephalopathic 3 days after returning; the only known nasal water exposure was at an indoor swimming pool in India 5 days earlier. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing demonstrated neutrophil-predominant pleocytosis and low glucose, but negative gram stain and culture. CSF microscopy revealed trophozoites; N. fowleri was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Classical genotyping confirmed genotype I, common in the United States and among Indian strains in GenBank. The North American N. fowleri strains and the patient's strain varied at 5 nonpolymorphic loci. CONCLUSIONS: A man died from PAM after likely exposure at a vacation rental pool in India. We recommend including PAM in the differential diagnosis when CSF studies suggest bacterial meningitis but gram stain is negative. Genotyping can advance our understanding of N. fowleri molecular epidemiology and support future investigations. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America 2021.
Entities:
Keywords:
Naegleria fowleri; fever in returning traveler; free-living ameba; international travel; primary amebic meningoencephalitis
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