5-year-old girl who enjoys hot spring baths, has a fatality rate of up to 98% brain-eating amoeba infection
Jul 03, 2025
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According to Chinese media, including the Feng Pai Shimbun, a 5-year-old girl A, who took a hot spring bath and swam with her parents at a hot spring in Xiamen, Fujian Province, suffered headaches, mild fever, and vomiting eight days later. As the symptoms got worse, he was hospitalized on the 23rd of the same month, lost consciousness after convulsions and was transferred to the intensive care unit on a ventilator.
The test results were released on the 27th, and it was found that he was infected with 'Negleria fowleri'.
The pathogen is known by its eerie nickname 'brain-eating amoeba', with a fatality rate of up to 98%. Even if they survive, they are likely to be in a vegetative state.
In addition, Fowler free amoeba is very small enough to be seen using a microscope and is said to inhabit warm freshwater or soil such as freshwater lakes, rivers, and hot springs.
Wang Xinwi, vice president of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Fudan University's Volcano Hospital, explained, `In China, infection with this pathogen is rare, with only a few cases a year.'
"When an infectious pathogen enters the brain, the fatality rate is very high, and it usually worsens rapidly within a week of the onset of the disease," he continued. "Initial symptoms are similar to common meningitis, such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, and neck stiffness, which can be easily mistaken for bacterial or viral infection.""
He also added that the body's immune system has little time to respond because it reaches the brain through the olfactory nerve, multiplies quickly.
Therefore, prevention of infection is the best measure.
Vice President Wang advised "If you have to swim in the wild, wear a nose clip and goggles and do not kick the sediment to prevent the amoeba from spreading in the water."
Immediately after playing in the water, the nose should be washed with bottled water, then distilled water or boiled at home and washed again with cooled water.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
