Prevalence and Clinical Importance of Entamoeba histolytica in Two High-Risk Groups: Travelers Returning from the Tropics and Male Homosexuals

This study was undertaken to learn the prevalence of amebiasis and to assess the clinical importance of Entamoeba histolytica in two high-risk groups: 2700 travelers returning from the tropics and 320 male homosexuals. Some 16.3% ofthe homosexual men and 4.0% of the travelers had E. histolytica infe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Infectious Diseases 1990-05, Vol.161 (5), p.1029-1031
Main Authors: Weinke, Thomas, Friedrich-Jänicke, Barbara, Hopp, Peter, Janitschke, Klaus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Amebiasis
Amebiasis - epidemiology
Animals
Berlin
Concise Communications
Diarrhea
Entamoeba histolytica
Entamoeba histolytica - enzymology
Entamoeba histolytica - isolation & purification
Entamoebiasis - epidemiology
Feces - parasitology
Homosexuality
Humans
Infections
Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic - epidemiology
Isoenzymes - analysis
Male
Male homosexuality
Middle Aged
Parasitism
Prevalence
Prospective Studies
Protozoa
Serology
Travel
Travelers
Tropical Climate
Zymodemes
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Summary:This study was undertaken to learn the prevalence of amebiasis and to assess the clinical importance of Entamoeba histolytica in two high-risk groups: 2700 travelers returning from the tropics and 320 male homosexuals. Some 16.3% ofthe homosexual men and 4.0% of the travelers had E. histolytica infections. Only five travelers showed a pathogenic zymodeme of E. histolytica, which correlated closely with invasive amebiasis with positive amebic serology and clinical symptoms with diarrhea. The homosexual group had neither a pathogenic isoenzyme pattern nor positive amebic serology. Currently, travelers to the tropics have a risk of 0.3% (1:340) of acquiring invasive amebiasis; 92.5% of all E. histolytica infections in travelers remain asymptomatic and are confirmed by serology and zymodeme status. No homosexual presented with invasive amebiasis.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6591
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/161.5.1029