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Present characteristics of symptomatic Entamoeba histolytica infection in the big cities of Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2004

K. OHNISHI
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Y. KATO
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
A. IMAMURA
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
M. FUKAYAMA
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Toshima General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
T. TSUNODA
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Ebara General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Y. SAKAUE
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Centre, Osaka City General Hospital, Osaka, Japan
M. SAKAMOTO
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Yokohama Municipal Citizens' Hospital, Yokohama, Japan
H. SAGARA
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, Yokohama Municipal Citizens' Hospital, Yokohama, Japan
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Abstract

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Medical records, for 2000 and 2001, of symptomatic amoebic patients who were treated at our hospitals in Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka were studied retrospectively for the purpose of gathering epidemiological data on symptomatic Entamoeba histolytica infection. A total of 58 patients were treated. Fifty-five of them were male, and 96% of the male patients were Japanese. The mean age of patients was 44·9 years old, and 91% of patients contracted the disease in Japan. Fifty-six per cent of the male patients indicated that they were practising homosexuals, and 44% of the male patients denied these practices or left the question unanswered. The serum Treponema pallidum haemagglutination test was positive in 45% of the patients, and antibody to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was positive in 45%. Our study revealed that recent symptomatic E. histolytica infection almost exclusively afflicted middle-aged males in the big cities of Japan, that a majority of the patients were probably exposed to the causative organism during homosexual activity, and that an increasing number of patients will be co-infected with HIV.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press