Dysentery: Part II- Amoebic Dysentery

In the continuing 2nd blog, I would be writing about the amoebic type of dysentery, which is commonly called as Amoebiasis.

2. Amoebic Dysentery:

a) Causative Agent- Amoebic Dysentery is mainly caused by Entamoeba histolytica.

b) Etiology- Amoebic dysentery is also spread by means similar to those of bacillary dysentery.

It includes:

• Poor hygiene and sanitation

• Ingestion of food contaminated by amoebic trophozoites, which later penetrate the mucosal wall of large intestine and cause infection.

c) Pathophysiology- Various macroscopic and microscopic features accompany amoebic dysentery besides fluid faecus. They are:

• The amoeba mainly infects the rectum and caecum of large intestine.

• The lesions are produced in the zone of infection and the they are associated with infiltration by macrophages, eosinophils, monocytes etc.

• The region surrounding the lesions is marked by edema and vascular congestion.

• The amoeba infecting the intestinal cells show characteristic feature of ingested RBC in their cytoplasm.

d) Complications- Like other lesions, it involves the risk of hemorrhage and perforations leading to secondary effects like spread of lesions to surrounding organs, peritonitis etc.

e) Treatment- It is mainly treated by using anti-amoebic drugs like metronidazole, which is most often used.

I hope u might have found these two blogs satisfactory and any type of comment is invited from depth of my heart.