Ali Raza¹ , Zafar Iqbal² , Ghulam Muhammad¹ , Mansoor Ahmad Khan³ , Kashif Hanif⁴

1. Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan;
2. Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan;
3. Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Government of Punjab, Pakistan;
4. Department of Microbiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Molecular Medical Science, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/ijmms.2013.03.0003
Received: 10 Mar., 2013    Accepted: 15 Mar., 2013    Published: 17 Jun., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Raza et al., 2013, Amoebiasis as a Major Risk to Human Health: A Review, International Journal of Molecular Medical Science, Vol.3, No.3 13-24 (doi: 10.5376/ijmms.2013.03.0003)

Entamoeba histolytica has diverse distribution and is a substantial risk in almost all the countries where barrier between human feces, food and water source are ordinary. There are at least 8 different amoebas that live in the human intestinal lumen however those are generally accepted as commensals except for E. histolytica. The parasite imposes a major threat to public health in most parts of world and has re-emerged in some previously dormant areas as it is categorized as second leading cause of death from parasitic disease worldwide. In most of E. histolytica infection, symptoms remain absent or very mild whereas most frequent clinical manifestation are colitis and liver abscess due to amoebic infection. Laboratory diagnosis of amoebiasis is usually made on the basis of microscopical and serological methods Nitromidazole derivatives like metronidazole, tinidazole and ornidazole are considered as foundation stone of the treatment for amoebiasis. Lack of effective vaccination is one of the major hurdles for the control of amoebiasis that may prevent transmission of the parasite and or at least progression of the infected individuals into active invasive disease. The aim of this article is to comprehensively review the epidemiology, disease pathology and treatment of this parasitic zoonotic disease.

Amoebiasis; Entamoeba histolytica; Food and water borne; Parasitic disease