Toddler's Death from Brain-Eating Amoeba Highlights Diagnostic Trap, Ars Technica Reports
A Washington toddler died of an ultra-rare brain-destroying amoeba, with symptoms that misled doctors, according to Ars Technica.
The child fell ill abruptly, starting with vomiting, lethargy, and weakness on the right side. The symptoms progressed to headache, fever, and trouble swallowing. At one point, he briefly became unresponsive and had episodes of stopped breathing. He was admitted to the hospital, but his condition only deteriorated.
The infection was caused by an opportunistic amoeba first identified in 1986 from the brain of a San Diego Zoo monkey that died from the disease. Since then, only about 200 human cases have been recorded worldwide, and roughly 90 percent of them have been fatal.
The amoeba is notorious for being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed because initial symptoms can be vague and the infection is extremely rare. Scarce medical literature offers some telltale signs on tests and scans, but in this toddler the infection looked different, leading doctors to the wrong conclusion, the report said.