A second fatality has been reported in connection with a brain-eating amoeba, but the HCM City Department of Health has not yet determined the exact cause of death.

The brain-eating amoeba causing the two victims' death 

The victim was a six-year old boy named Ly Tai Tien, from Binh Tan District. Tests showed that he died of the brain-eating amoeba named naegleria fowleri, however, doctors do not know how he was infected.The victim family said, the boy suffered from epilepsy which seriously affected his ability to move and his mental development. When he was born, he was also diagnosed with a brian haemorrhage. The family said that the boy always had clean drinking water.

Two days before being hospitalised, came down with a high fever and, despite taking medication, the fever did not let up. He died on August 12, after being admitted to the district hospital.

According to Doctor Tran Phu Manh Sieu, Director of the HCM City Preventive Medicine Department, research has shown that human brain-eating amoeba only lives in water environments and penetrate into human body through the nose and throat.

This patient, however, had stayed at home for years and had no contact with rivers or lakes.

The previous case of this disease, a 25-year-old male from the southern province of Phu Yen, died from contracting the the disease after swimming in a lake near his house. He was taken to HCM City Tropical Hospital and died on July 31.