19 dead this year: 'Brain-eating' amoeba sparks political slugfest in Kerala House

In 2024, George said there were clusters of the disease linked to a common water source. This year so far, she confirmed that 69 PAM cases have been detected, with 19 deaths reported.

“Not clusters, single cases...we did have clusters, but not in 2025... but back in 2024, there was a cluster there because the same water source was used...here, there is no cluster, but we have cases, we have a total number of 69 cases..." she told news agency ANI.

According to the Kerala government's health department, Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis is a type of ‘amoebic encephalitis’ - a rare but lethal central nervous system infection caused by free-living amoebae found in freshwater, lakes, and rivers.