KARACHI, Oct 6: The much-dreaded ‘brain-eating amoeba’, or Naegleria fowleri, claimed the life of another man at a private university hospital during this week, confirmed provincial health authorities on Saturday.

The victim was a student, the eldest of the three siblings.

The focal person of the dengue surveillance cell, Dr Shakeel A. Mullick, who also oversees other infectious disease epidemics, told Dawn that the private hospital verbally reported admission and death of the young man in the evening but promised to file a formal report on Monday.

“A senior physician from the hospital has informed me that a 21-year-old Naegleria patient from Federal B Area was admitted to the hospital on Sept 29 and died on Oct 3,” said Dr Mullick, adding that this was the second death blamed on Naegleria in the past six days.

A friend of the deceased who attended the funeral told Dawn that the victim lived in Federal B Area’s Block 6. He died at a hospital on Stadium Road on Wednesday night.

Including the latest victim, eight people, mainly young men, have fallen prey to the brain-eating amoeba since May.

Naegleria fowleri lives predominately in warm fresh water. After entering the human body, the amoeba travels into the brain, causing primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), said an expert.

Though the lifestyle and any history of swimming in public recreational places in the case of the eighth Naegleria victim was yet to be ascertained, concerted efforts should be made to check the quality of water consumed every day by citizens in the city, said an official of the health department.

The official said that save one, none of the patients who died from Naegleria so far in the city had the history of swimming in the past.