MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Naegleriasis, a parasitic disease caused by the Naegleria fowleri amoeba, cannot be transmitted from one person to another and there have never been any cases of this infection in Russia, Alexander Semyonov, who heads the Yekaterinburg Research Institute of Viral Infections (an affiliate of the Vector Center of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) told TASS on Monday.

Earlier, South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency said that the first case of the disease which affects the brain had been detected in the country. A South Korean national who recently returned from Thailand where he had spent about four months was diagnosed. Later, the patient died.

"In most cases, if the infection with the amoeba was diagnosed late, unfortunately, it results in death. Over the past 60 years more than 400 cases have been recorded worldwide (including 150 in the US). That said, 97% of patients died. However, all of them are isolated cases because the disease is not human-to-human transmissible. So, we are dealing with a classic sapronotic microorganism which lives in the wild and a person is infected only after coming into contact with it in the environment," the expert said, noting that no cases of such an infection have been registered in Russia.

Naegleriasis is a fatal but very rare parasitic disease. Its agent is the Naegleria fowleri amoeba, a microorganism found in bodies of water. In order for the amoeba to survive, the water temperature has to be 25-30 degrees Centigrade above zero, Semyonov added. According to him, the amoeba can be found in the American South.

The disease can be contracted while swimming, especially when diving feet first without holding your nose. The amoeba can enter the nose with water, then attach itself to an olfactory nerve and begin to move upwards, "devouring" nerve tissue, the specialist noted. In order to be protected against the disease, a person should avoid swimming in stagnant, polluted warm bodies of water in North America, India and Pakistan.

"The main problem is that it is diagnosed too late. Currently, there are several promising medications which are effective against this amoeba. However, in the majority of hospitals, especially in small hospitals in the areas where this disease is rarely encountered, the diagnosis is made too late," he added.