Alarm in India’s Kerala as cases of ‘brain-eating’ amoeba rise

Authorities in Kerala, India’s southern state, have issued a health alert following more than double-infections and fatalities brought on by a rare water-borne “brain-eating” amoeba, which has more than doubled in a year.

Since the start of 2025, according to officials in Kerala, 69 cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis have been reported, including 19 deaths, as a result of contact with the Naegleria fowleri amoeba, according to a statement released on Wednesday. In the last month, three-month-old babies were among the deaths that were reported.

36 cases with which there were nine deaths reported last year were all included.

The amoeba, which does not spread through people, lives in warm lakes and rivers and is contaminated water that enters noses.

State Health Minister Veena George quoted as saying, “We are not seeing clusters linked to a single water source, unlike last year.” These are “single, isolated cases,” which has gotten more difficult for our epidemiological investigations.

According to NDTV, the Kerala government has begun chlorinating wells, water tanks, public bathing areas, and other locations where people are likely to take baths and come into contact with the amoeba.

“Cases across the state”

While the number is still low, a doctor who is a member of a government task force to stop the spread claimed that state authorities were “proceeding tests on a large scale across the state to detect and treat cases.”

Altaf Ali told the AFP news agency, “It’s worrying that new cases have emerged this year from across the state rather than just particular pockets in the past.”

Infections are “very rare but almost always fatal,” says the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The health agency calls it a “brain-eating amoeba” because it can “infect the brain and destroy brain tissue.” More than 95 percent of those affected by the amoeba can become infected with it once it enters the brain.

According to the World Health Organization, symptoms include a headache, fever, and vomiting that quickly “appears to be seizures, altered mental status, hallucinations, and coma.”

In 2016, the first case of infection in Kerala was identified.