conclusions a relatively high prevalence of acanthamoeba spp. in rivers reflects a risk alert for threatening human health in the region. however, well hygienic status of the tap waters considering acanthamoeba spp. cannot be ignored in western co-border regions of iran-iraq. this study can also serve as a platform for further explorations of water sources in iran and neighboring countries. res...

To the Editor: Free-living amebae are ubiquitous protists able to endure extreme temperature and pH in diverse environments (1). In past decades, interest in them increased as causes of infections, such as keratitis (2) and granulomatous encephalitis (3). Acanthamoeba spp. can harbor pathogenic microorganisms as endosymbionts, such as bacteria (e.g., Legionella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and...

BACKGROUND Acanthamoeba- bacteria interactions enable pathogenic bacteria to tolerate harsh conditions and lead to transmission to the susceptible host. The present study was aimed to address the presence of bacterial endosymbionts of Acanthamoeba isolated from recreational water sources of Tehran, Iran. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study regarding occurrence of bacteria in en...

Pathogenic free-living amoebae are common in nature, but few clinical infections by these amoebae have been reported. This has prompted studies of host susceptibility factors in humans. A survey of normal human sera from three New Zealand Health Districts was made; antibodies to pathogenic free-living amoebae were found in all sera, with titers ranging from 1:5 to 1:20 for Naegleria spp. and fr...

Meningoencephalitis caused by Acanthamoeba spp. is a rare opportunistic infection, difficult to diagnose and treat, which causes death in almost all cases. Here, the authors report a 5-year-old Iranian immunocompetent girl who died of fulminant acanthamoeba meningoencephalitis. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case of acanthamoeba meningoencephalitis in Iran.

Acanthamoeba is a "Trojan horse" of the microbial world. The aim of this study was to identify the presence of Pseudomonas as an amoeba-resistant microorganism in 12 isolates of Acanthamoeba. All isolates showed the genus Pseudomonas spp. as amoeba-resistant microorganisms. Thus, one can see that the Acanthamoeba isolates studied are hosts of Pseudomonas.

An outbreak of Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare, potentially blinding, corneal infection, was detected in the United States in 2007; cases had been increasing since 2004. A case-control study was conducted to investigate the outbreak. We interviewed 105 case-patients from 30 states and 184 controls matched geographically and by contact lens use. Available contact lenses, cases, solutions, and cor...

Introduction: Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic protist, which is ubiquitously distributed in the environment. Infection with Acanthamoeba spp. poses threat to human health, such as, Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) that is a vision-threatening infection of the cornea. This study aimed to identify the species of Acanthamoeba strains isolated from cornea of keratitis patients by polymerase chain react...