Symptoms of Amebiasis
The majority of people infected by amebiasis have no symptoms. The disease can often go unnoticed. Nevertheless, these people excrete parasites in their faeces and they can give the infection to other people if the correct hygiene measures are not taken.
Approximately 10% of infected people develop symptoms, which tend to appear gradually over several days or weeks following infection. The most frequent symptoms are caused by the effect of the amoebas that cause the disease on the digestive tract:
Diarrhoea, occasionally with the presence of mucous or blood in the faeces.
Abdominal pain (colic type).
There may also be weight loss, a fever of over 38ºC, anaemia, etc.
The most serious cases may be complicated by intestinal perforation.
On some occasions, the parasite may propagate to organs outside the intestine, which leads to another illness known as extraintestinal amebiasis. The liver is the most commonly affected organ, where an amoebic abscess forms. These patients tend to present:
Fever (90%).
Abdominal pain.
Increase in liver size.
Diarrhoea.
Weight loss.
Cough.
Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and mucous membranes, as a consequence of an increase in bilirubin).
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