The wonderful world in which we live, unfortunately, is inhabited by hundreds of creatures who do nothing but bring us trouble, and sometimes even threaten our lives. One enemy of the army of such parasites is a faceless microscopic amoeba that causes the deadly disease amoebiasis. Treatment should begin immediately, and disinfection must be carried out in the outbreak. Amoebiasis is very insidious, because the amoeba parasites, having got into our intestines, are able to spread with blood to other organs, where it is extremely difficult to detect them. It is especially life-threatening if amoebas enter the brain. To prevent this from happening, you need to rush to the doctor at the first sign of the disease. Let's take a closer look at the following questions: where does amoebiasis come from, the symptoms and treatment of the disease, and most importantly, the preventive measures that must be taken so as not to encounter it at all.
Amebiasis pathogen
To begin with, let's draw a portrait of the simplest single-celled creature called the dysenteric amoeba,or, scientifically, Entamoeba histolytica. It differs from its relatives in the more modest size of the pseudopods and the body as a whole. This amoeba lives exclusively parasitic, and only we humans can become its victims. The tiny parasite is so cunning that it has managed to infect more than 900 million people on Earth, rewarding them with such a disease as amoebiasis. Treatment of the disease, started in a timely manner, has a good prognosis. If you do not rush to the doctor and self-medicate, you can pay with your life. The dysenteric amoeba can exist in three completely different forms:
1. cysts. They can be likened to eggs. They are round, very small, up to 12 microns, covered with a dense two-layer shell, they are immature (less than 4 cores inside) and mature (exactly 4 cores inside). Cysts are responsible for infecting he althy people. Formed in the body of the patient, they come out with feces. In the external environment, they live for about a month, and in water - 3-4 months, and many disinfectants are not able to cope with them. Therefore, all this time, you can easily catch amoebiasis, the treatment of which we will consider below.
In the human stomach, cysts remain dormant. Their membranes dissolve only in the small intestine. There, a mature quad-core individual, called the mother, divides, turning into 8 single-core daughters.
2. translucent form. Daughter amoebas feed on the microbes that inhabit our intestines, grow vigorously and gradually move from the small intestine to the large intestine. As long as they are conditionally harmless.
3. Fabric form. Having reached the large intestine, the grown amoebas are introduced intoits walls, where they begin to multiply rapidly. The intestines ulcerate, and millions of new parasites are shed into the stool. When they thicken, young amoeba retract their pseudopods, round, become covered with a double membrane and turn into cysts.
The cycle repeats.
Routes of infection
From the above it is clear that only cysts are involved in infection. Small and extremely tenacious, they quickly spread around the area from feces. Flies, cockroaches, and some other insects help this. Sewer waste, which, as you know, are not subjected to special treatment, is used in the fields as an excellent fertilizer or simply poured into the environment. This also contributes to the expansion of the habitat of amoebas. They do not live in animals, birds, fish, only in humans.
Another convenient way for cysts to find a new victim is to get them on household items with the dirty hands of those who have already been struck by amoebiasis. Patients may not begin treatment immediately, but even if these people take timely action, they are carriers of the infection as long as cysts continue to be released from their intestines.
Thus, the ways of infection with amoebiasis are as follows:
- dirty hands;
- drinking water from rivers, ponds, any open water;
- eating unwashed fruits, vegetables.
There are three more routes of infection:
- anal intercourse;
- using one towel and wearing common underwear with a carrier of amoebiasis;
- transmission from a sick mother to a baby whenher lack of hygiene.
Intestinal amoebiasis in adults, symptoms and treatment
The disease is more common where the climate is warm, but in the summer it is also recorded in our latitudes. Europeans can pick up amoebiasis while traveling to exotic southern countries and bring it home from there. If a person's body is strong enough, cysts and even translucent forms of amoeba live in the gastrointestinal tract for a relatively long time without causing disease. If the immune system is weak, already on the seventh day after infection, amoebiasis may begin to manifest itself. In adults, symptoms and treatment depend on where in the body the amoeba has settled. If it is the intestine, intestinal amoebiasis is diagnosed. Amoebas inhabit almost all of its departments - the caecum, ascending, colon, sigmoid and rectum. Dozens of erosions and ulcers of various depths and diameters (up to 3 cm) are formed in the intestinal walls, sometimes reaching perforation and peritonitis. In any case, the intestinal mucosa becomes inflamed, and pus accumulates in the ulcers.
Symptoms:
- temperature;
- lethargy, weakness;
- pain in the intestines;
- fever;
- loose stools.
Important: severe diarrhea in the first days of the disease is observed only in 10% of those infected.
In the future, symptoms are added to everyone:
- frequent stools (liquid, with pus and blood);
- signs of dehydration (dry lips, tongue, skin, weak turgor);
- signs of intoxication (headache, vomiting, nausea);
- exhaustion.
Symptoms of extraintestinal liver amoebiasis
Parasites that have entered the bloodstream are settled in other organs. The liver is most commonly affected, but the lungs, brain, pericardium, cornea, spleen, and skin are also affected. If this happens, extraintestinal amebiasis is diagnosed, the treatment of which depends on the location of the parasites. Amoebas are sometimes observed in other organs after they have been eliminated in the intestines.
The liver infected with amoebiasis functions quite well, and the presence of parasites does not appear in blood tests. The exception is the ALPL indicator - alkaline phosphatase. With hepatic amoebiasis, its values \u200b\u200bare higher than 140 IU / l.
A purulent sac (abscess) is formed in the liver, which, if the remedies for the treatment of amoebiasis are not chosen correctly, can perforate. Then its contents are poured into the abdominal cavity, internal bleeding appears, sepsis may occur.
Symptoms of amoebas in the liver:
- aching pain in the side on the right, often spreading under the shoulder blade and/or shoulder;
- the intensity of pain in the right hypochondrium decreases when the patient turns to the left side;
- hepatomegaly (enlargement of the borders of the liver);
- pain on palpation;
- nausea;
- diarrhea;
- temperature;
- sweating, chills;
- loss of appetite and, consequently, weight loss.
Symptoms of amoebiasis of the lungs
This complication is possible for two reasons:
- amoeba with bloodentered the lungs from the intestines;
- drugs for the treatment of amebiasis in the liver were chosen incorrectly, as a result of which an abscess in the liver burst and pus poured into the pleural cavity.
When parasites enter the lungs with blood, symptoms should alert:
- persistent cough with bloody sputum;
- shortness of breath;
- temperature;
- chest pain.
Without proper treatment, a purulent abscess also forms in the lungs. At the same time, the patient has:
- fever;
- high pain at the site of the abscess;
- signs of heart failure.
When a suppuration is opened, a cough with chocolate-colored sputum, glossitis, pharyngitis appears.
Diagnosis of amoebiasis of the lungs includes a blood test, X-ray, examination of feces for the detection of cysts, examination of sputum and pleural fluid, serological tests.
Amebiasis of other organs
Rarely, but still there is amoebiasis of the skin. The disease is characterized by ulcers, most often observed in the abdomen, perineum and buttocks. Usually the wounds are deep, dark on the edges, have an unpleasant odor.
Amebiasis of the brain is one of the most painful complications of the disease. It is characterized by severe, non-stopping headaches, convulsions, impaired sensitivity, paralysis. An abscess or tumor of the brain tissue may develop. Focal symptoms are different, depending on the localization of the abscess formation in the brain regions and coincide with the corresponding neurological disorders. Treatment of amoebiasis in adults andchildren that have arisen outside the intestinal zone, is carried out with the obligatory prescription of antibiotics in tandem and tissue amoebicides (Metronidazole, Dehydroemitin, Khingamine). With amoebiasis of the brain, nootropic drugs are added to the complex of medicines.
With amebiasis of the liver and skin, in addition to the basic medicines, Diyodochin, Intestopan, Mexaform are prescribed.
If chemotherapy does not give the expected result and in the presence of abscesses, surgery is performed.
Chronic amoebiasis
Dysentery amoeba can settle in our intestines for years, that is, the acute form of the disease becomes chronic. This happens when the treatment of amoebiasis in adults and babies was carried out incorrectly, not completely, or not at all. Patients, having suffered for a month or a little more, begin to experience the desired relief. Abdominal pains disappear, diarrhea too, general well-being improves. This stage is called remission, which pleases for about a month, and sometimes up to three or four months. The person begins to feel that the disease has receded. But after remission, there are always new exacerbations, during which everything repeats from the beginning. This form of chronic amoebiasis is called recurrent.
There is also a second form, called continuous. With her, the characteristic signs of amoebiasis increase and decrease, but never completely stop.
Chronic amoebiasis symptoms:
- loss of appetite leading to weight loss, anemia;
- decrease in efficiency,vitality;
- fatigue;
- asthenic syndrome;
- beriberi;
- hepatomegaly;
- tachycardia;
- polyps, narrowing of the intestine, perforation of its walls, bleeding can form in the intestine.
Diagnosis
Before starting the treatment of intestinal amebiasis, the differentiation of the pathogenic flora detected in the patient's feces is carried out. Not only dysentery amoeba may be present here, but also intestinal amoeba (Entamoeba coli), dwarf amoeba (Endolimax nana) or others, and in order to confirm the diagnosis of amoebiasis, it is necessary to detect dysentery amoeba and it is in tissue form. If in the feces there are only their cysts, or luminal forms, a diagnosis is made - a carrier of amoebiasis. Differentiation is carried out by PCR. In addition to fecal analysis, in the case of intestinal amoebiasis, a colonoscopy is performed.
Treatment
Everyone who has a confirmed diagnosis of amoebiasis is treated with antibiotics and amoebicides in a hospital. Metronidazole, Ornidazole, Tinidazole or other similar drugs that depress the dysentery amoeba are prescribed. The complex prescribes drugs of the tertacycline group, which are active against this parasite.
At the end of the main course, an additional course is prescribed, including amoebocides acting on translucent forms. These are Clefamid, Etofamide, Paromomycin. The same drugs are attributed to people who have only cysts and translucent forms of amoeba in their feces.
Traditional medicine
Since amoebiasis can lead to death without proper therapy, treatment with folk remedies for this disease is possible only as an addition to the main course. Basically, the help of healers comes down to stopping bloody diarrhea in patients. There are dozens of recipes among the people that help with such a problem. Some of them:
- Film from chicken stomachs. It is separated, thoroughly washed, dried, ground and eaten 2 or 3 times a day.
- Dry brewing tea. Chew an incomplete teaspoon thoroughly and swallow with water.
- Oak bark. (Medicine for adults). A teaspoon of dry chopped bark should be poured with 400 ml of cold but boiled water and infused for 8 hours. Ready to drink in a day.
- Blueberry, bird cherry, sea buckthorn, hawthorn, mountain ash are widely used. The recipe for preparation is identical for all plants - 100 grams of dried berries are poured into 400 ml of boiling water, insisted and taken 100 ml per day. Only bird cherry berries need to be taken only 10 grams.
- Garlic. It is cleaned, crushed, 40 grams are measured and poured with half a glass of vodka, let it brew. Each time half an hour before the start of the meal, take 15 drops of the remedy.
Amebiasis in children: symptoms and treatment
This disease is practically not observed in infants. But kids from one to three years old get sick most often because, having learned to walk, they want to explore the world around them and do it mostly with their hands. And children over three years old already understand that you can’t pull everything into your mouth. Parents shouldtake into account these features and protect your child from infection as much as possible.
Symptoms of amoebiasis in babies:
- diarrhea (the main and most important sign);
- capriciousness;
- refusal to eat;
- tummy ache;
- temperature (may rise slightly or to high levels).
In children, diarrhea is not very frequent at first, about 6-7 times a day, the feces are liquefied, mucus may be present in them. In the future, urges become more frequent up to 20 or more times, feces are highly liquefied, with blood and mucus. The child at this stage becomes lethargic, refuses to play, complains of abdominal pain, nausea.
Extraintestinal amoebiasis is rare in babies. Their symptoms are the same as in adults. The acute form of the disease without proper therapy becomes chronic in three to four weeks.
Diagnosis is based on anamnesis and fecal analysis (mucus, red blood cells, cysts, eosinophils are found in it). This analysis is performed several times to rule out error. In some cases, the child is given a serological test for antibodies, but it begins to "work" only after 2 weeks from the onset of the first symptoms. A blood test in acute amoebiasis does not give results, but in chronic there is an increase in ESR and eosinophils, a decrease in hemoglobin.
Amebiasis in children is treated in a hospital. The preparations Osarsol, Delagil, antibiotics of the tetracycline group, Flagil, Trichopol, Fasizhin, Meratin, vitamins, Bififor, Simbiter are used. Particular attention is paid torestoration of the fluid lost by the body, for which the child is given plenty of fluids (with vomiting in a spoon, but very often). So that there is no loss of s alts, it is advisable to make a solution for drinking: 1 liter of water, plus 1 tsp each. without a slide of s alt and soda, plus 2 tbsp. l. sugar, mix everything until the components are dissolved, heat to a temperature of +37 ° C before use.
Prevention
Like any intestinal infection, amoebiasis can be prevented by maintaining hygiene, washing hands before eating and after using the toilet, washing all food purchased or plucked from personal land, and boiling water taken from open reservoirs. In addition, it is necessary to destroy the carriers of cysts - flies, cockroaches.
At the first signs of amoebiasis, you need to rush to the doctor, and not engage in self-healing even with the help of the most proven "experienced" recipes. This will prevent amoebiasis from spreading to family and friends.
