Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis in Western Australia

Abstract

This paper describes the findings in three fatal cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. Two children developed the infection in January, 1980, in widely separated wheat-belt towns. The third child's infection, diagnosed by retrospective examination of necropsy material, developed in February, 1963, in the town where the second child lived. Infection with Naegleria fowleri was demonstrated by histological examination supplemented by specific immunofluorescence in all three cases, and by culture in the second case. For early diagnosis it is important to search for amoebae both on wet preparations and on stained films of cerebrospinal fluid when primary amoebic meningoencephalitis is suspected on epidemiological grounds of from cerebrospinal fluid findings.