Meningoencephalitis Due to Free-Living Amebas Normally Found in Soil

Excerpt

Within the past 5 years, knowledge of a hitherto unrecognized infectious disease—amebic meningoencephalitis—has crystallized. The first reports of clinical identification of the causative organism have appeared only very recently. Cerva, Zimak, and Novak (1) have cultured amebas of the genus Naegleria from three separate spinal fluid specimens obtained from a 12-year-old boy who died of an acute purulent meningitis that did not respond to antibacterial agents. In 1968 amebas believed to be Naegleria sp. were isolated from the spinal fluid of a 15-year-old girl who died after 5 days of a similar illness at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital