CDC concludes monitoring for deadly amoeba cases after no new infections

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) No additional people who visited an indoor water park in New Taipei where a woman is believed to have contracted a deadly brain-eating amoeba last month have reported any symptoms of infection and therefore monitoring has concluded, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday.

In a call with reporters, CDC spokeswoman Tseng Shu-huai (曾淑慧) said the monitoring period of the 642 people who visited the water park from July 21 to Aug. 9 had elapsed on Wednesday, meaning that no additional cases are expected.

The group was being monitored after a woman, in her 30s, apparently contracted Naegleria fowleri (commonly known as a brain-eating amoeba) during a visit to the water park on July 21, the first such case in Taiwan since 2011.

After visiting the park, the woman sought medical attention on July 26 for symptoms including headaches, a stiff neck, fever, chills and convulsions. Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died on Aug. 1.

The CDC first reported the case on Aug. 10.

Around that time, CDC officials took 56 water samples from 10 different locations in the park, of which only one sample, taken from the park’s basement, was found to have been contaminated with the organism.

The CDC has said the contaminated sample was likely rainwater that had entered the basement, which was off-limits to the public and was unrelated to the facility’s water supply. It did not explain how, in this case, the woman would have been infected.

Naegleria fowleri is a single-cell organism (amoeba) most often found in warm freshwater environments such as hot springs, rivers and lakes, because it reproduces best at high temperatures up to 46 degrees Celsius.

Humans can become infected when the organism enters the body through the nose, from which it travels up and causes a brain infection that is almost always fatal. People cannot be infected, however, by drinking the contaminated water.

Adding chlorine to a pool at a concentration of 1 part per million can kill up to 99.99 percent of the amoeba, according to the CDC.