India Issues Alert as Deadly Amoeba Cases Surge in Kerala

Photo : Collected

India has issued a health alert after infections and deaths linked to the rare “brain-eating” amoeba doubled in Kerala compared with last year.

Health officials reported 72 cases and 19 deaths from Naegleria fowleri so far in 2025, including nine deaths and 24 infections in September alone. Last year, 36 cases and nine deaths were recorded.

Altaf Ali, a doctor with the state task force, said authorities are conducting large-scale testing to detect and treat infections.

The amoeba, found in warm lakes and rivers, infects people when contaminated water enters through the nose. It does not spread from person to person. Once in the brain, it causes an infection that destroys brain tissue, with a fatality rate of over 95 percent, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting, which can rapidly progress to seizures, hallucinations, and coma, the World Health Organization notes.

Ali warned that unlike past outbreaks confined to specific areas, this year’s cases have been reported across Kerala.

Since 1962, nearly 500 cases have been confirmed worldwide, mostly in the United States, India, Pakistan, and Australia.