Amoebiasis history and symptoms

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Most infected people, perhaps 90%, are asymptomatic but this disease has the potential to make the sufferer dangerously ill. Symptoms can range from mild diarrhoea to dysentery with blood and mucus.

Usually, the illness lasts about 2 weeks, but it can come back if treatment is not given.

Mild symptoms:

• Abdominal cramps
• Diarrhea
  • Passage of 3 – 8 semiformed stools per day
  • Passage of soft stools with mucus and occasional blood
• Fatigue
• Intestinal gas (excessive flatus)
• Rectal pain while having a bowel movement (tenesmus)
• Unintentional weight loss

Severe symptoms:

• Abdominal tenderness
• Bloody stools
  • Passage of liquid stools with streaks of blood
  • Passage of 10 – 20 stools per day
• Fever
• Vomiting

Note: In 90% of people with amoebiasis there are no symptoms.

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