Amoebic appendicitis is very rare, occurring in about 0.5% to 2% of acute appendicitis, and usually not reported in children. We report a case of confirmed acute amoebic appendicitis complicating amoebic colitis in a 7-year-old Pakistani boy living in southern Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and briefly review the literature on parasitic appendicitis.

Naegleria fowleri, Acanthamoeba spp., Balamuthia mandrillaris, and Sappinia sp. are pathogenic free-living amoebae. N. fowleri causes Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis, a rapidly fatal disease of the central nervous system, while Acanthamoeba spp. and B. mandrillaris cause chronic granulomatous encephalitis. Acanthamoeba spp. also can cause cutaneous lesions and Amoebic Keratitis, a sight-thr...

Gill diseases cause considerable losses in Norwegian salmon farming. In 2015, we characterized salmon gill poxvirus (SGPV) and associated gill disease. Using newly developed diagnostic tools, we show here that SGPV infection is more widely distributed than previously assumed. We present seven cases of complex gill disease in Atlantic salmon farmed in seawater and freshwater from different parts...

Host genetic susceptibility is an important risk factor in infectious diseases. We explored the distribution of Q223R mutation in leptin receptor gene of amoebic liver abscess (ALA) patients of North India. A total of 55 ALA samples along with 102 controls were subjected to PCR-RFLP analysis. The frequency of allele "G" (coding for arginine) was in general high in Indian population irrespective...

Metronidazole and niridazole combined with dehydroemetine in treatment of children with amoebic liver abscess. Metronidazole combined with dehydroemetine cured 13 of 15 children with amoebic liver abscess. An alternative combination of niridazole with dehydroemetine produced cure in 13 of 14 children. No relapses were observed. Electrocardiographic changes were noted in 2 of the first group and...

To demonstrate the pitfalls in the diagnosis of intestinal amoebiasis we describe a case of amoebic enterocolitis with an atypical clinical presentation. In a patient with repeated rectal blood loss and no diarrhea, colonoscopy showed discontinuous ulcerative enterocolitis of the ileocecal region. Because of a high suspicion of Crohn’s disease a recipe of Entocort 9mg daily was handed out to hi...

We evaluated the contribution of amoebic coculture to the recovery of Legionella spp. from 379 respiratory samples. The sensitivity of axenic culture was 42.1%. The combination of axenic culture with amoebic coculture increased the Legionella isolation rate to 47.1%. Amoebic coculture was particularly efficient in isolating Legionella spp. from respiratory samples contaminated with oropharyngea...

Indigenous plant remedies are widely used in the treatment of variety of disorders because these products are safe, widely available at low cost, and easy to access. Developing countries are severely threatened by amoebic diseases mainly caused by Entamoeba histolytica. Drugs available have been reported to be mutagenic so an alternate source of medicines is highly required. Plant extracts have...