PRIMARY AMEBIC MENINGOENCEPHALITIS IN ARGENTINA:
EPIDEMIOLOGIG RESEARCH AND ISOLATION
Latapie
LB 1,
Bourgeois A 2, Ortolani RI 2, Guarnera RA 1
2 Dirección de Medicina Preventiva.
Municipalidad de Malvinas Argentinas, Argentina
Free-living amebas of the genera Naegleria, Acantamoeba and Ballamuthia are capable of living
as parasites or as free-living organism. They can produce two types of
disease in central nervous system and other organs: a fulminant, rapidly
progressing CNS infection called PAM (Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis),
produced by Naegleria Fowleri and
a chronic slowly progressive disease called GAE (Granulomatous Amebic
Encephalitis), produced by several species of Acantamoeba and by Balamuthia
Mandrilaris.
Objective: clinical case report of
a child with GAE produced by Ballamuthia.
Methods: Review of patients’
records, laboratory studies, epidemiological research.
Results: A one year-old girl was
diagnosed with aseptic meningitis and died after a one month-evolution.
This case occurred at winter and the child didn’t walk and did not have
access to superficial watercourses. The patient’s ameba was typified post
mortem at CDC Atlanta as a Ballamuthia.
We started the epidemiologic research of the case in order to isolate the
source of the infection. It was isolated for the first time the Ballamuthia specie from the
environment, in a pond that the family used for personal hygiene.
Conclusion:
Trough
the epidemilogic research of a one year-old patient diagnosed with
meningoencephalitis produced by Ballamuthia,
it was isolated from the familial environment this free living ameba.