Naegleria Fowleri and Solid Organ Transplantation - 668 Words

Naegleria fowleri and Solid Organ Transplantation – An Overview Naegleria fowleri commonly referred to as the â€Å"brain-eating amoeba†, is a free-living, warm fresh water amoeba, isolated from soil. Site of entrance of N. fowleri is when contaminated water moves up the nose, during swimming,nasal irritation, amoeba then passes the cribriform plate and reaches the brain causing primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).128 Cases were reported from 1962 -2012 in U.S.PAM usually affect young,healthy individuals who becomes candidates for organ donation. However no case of N.fowleri transmission has been documented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has investigated physical and pathological possibilities of N. fowleri to disseminate to organs outside the nervous system. Morphologically, it consist of 3 different morphological stages which are : trophozoite, flagellate and cyst. †¢ Trophozoite : It is an infective stage, 10-20mm long containing nucleus having a large karyosome. They reproduce by means of binary fission and are motile by means of granular cytoplasm called as lobopodia. It is a thermophilic organism which can tolerate temperature up to 45 °C.the ideal temperature required for the growth of trophozoites is 42 °C for ingesting bacteria and yeast trophozoites used a special structure named as food-cap in a human host, which is used to ingest RBC’s, WBC’s, and tissues. It also contains contractile vacuole, which rupture, emptied and reform in