KARACHI: For the very first time in Pakistan, Jamil-ur-Rehman Center for Genome Research, University of Karachi (UoK), in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry, UoK, has made genotyping of Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba.
The researchers have also isolated and identified Naegleria fowleri, causing hundred percent fatal brain disease. Dr. Muhammad Aurongzeb, the researcher at Jamil-ur-Rehman Center for Genome Research, in collaboration with the ICCBS alumni Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, the assistant professor at the Department of Biochemistry, isolated and identified Naegleria fowleri. The samples were taken from the Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the residential tap water of a 28year-old suspected PAM (Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis) patient, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.
Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, the Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, and COMSTECH Coordinator General disclosed this while talking to a group of foreign researchers at the international center.
Prof. Choudhary said, “Naegleria fowleri is a thermotolerant free-living amoeba that is found in warm fresh water and soil. It can tolerate temperature of up to 44 degrees centigrade and is known to be sensitive against standard chlorine levels and salinity in water.”
It causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, he said, adding that the mortality rate for PAM is 98 percent. Pakistan ranked the second most affected country where most of the PAM incidences were reported in Karachi city, he said, and maintained that Karachi had an arid climate with long hot summers. The city’s regional weather condition and a poor municipal water supply system might be the main reason for increased PAM cases, he observed.
For the very first time in Pakistan, N. fowleri genotype has been identified by this research group as type-2, which has been published in a research journal IJPA in 2022, he said.
In order to determine the N. fowleri surveillance in the tap water from different areas of Karachi, 40 tap water samples from 18 different towns of Karachi were collected and analyzed for the presence of N. fowleri, he said.
He said, “Notably 71.79 percent of locality contain no or low levels of chlorine in their drinking water supply.”
Only 28.21 percent of water supply lines have chlorine residues but less than the recommendation of the WHO, he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that out of the total tap water samples from Manora, North Karachi, New Karachi, Gulshan-e-Hadid, Malir, Quaidabad, Korangi, Kemari, Sohrab Goth, Liyari and Golimar showed positive results for Naegleria genus. N. fowleri type 2 was present in the tap water sample of Golimar only, he said.
Preventive measures should be taken according to WHO guidelines by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to control PAM in Pakistan especially in Karachi, he observed.
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