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Fatal Naegleria fowleri meningoencephalitis, Italy.

Cogo, Paola E; Scagli, Massimo; Gatti, Simonetta; Rossetti, Flavio; Alaggio, Rita; Laverda, Anna Maria; Zhou, Ling; Xiao, Lihua; Visvesvara, Govinda S.

Emerg Infect Dis ; 10(10): 1835-7, 2004 Oct.

Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-15504272

We report the first case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis in Italy, in a 9-year-old boy. Clinical course was fulminant, and diagnosis was made by identifying amebas in stained brain sections and by indirect immunofluorescence analysis. Naegleria fowleri was characterized as genotype I on the basis of polymerase chain reaction test results.

Amebiasis/diagnosis , Meningoencephalitis/parasitology , Naegleria fowleri/isolation & purification , Amebiasis/pathology , Animals , Brain/parasitology , Brain/pathology , Child , Fatal Outcome , Humans , Italy , Male , Meningoencephalitis/pathology