Epidemiologic and Clinical Features of Invasive Amebiasis in Bangladesh: A Case-Control Comparison with other Diarrheal Diseases and Postmortem Findings

To describe the epidemiologic and clinical features associated with invasive amebiasis in Bangladesh, 85 hospitalized diarrheal patients with hematophagous trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica in their stools were compared to a control group of 84 hospitalized diarrheal patients without amebiasis. Postmortem examinations were carried out in 22 deaths due to amebiasis. For the patients with amebiasis, there was a bimodal age distribution with peaks at 2-3 years and greater than 40 years, whereas the control patients had a unimodal distribution with the peak at 0-1 year. The sex distribution was equal in childhood but young adults were predominantly female and older adults predominantly male. The clinical features significantly associated with amebiasis were prolonged dysentery, prior measles rash, malnutrition, hyponatremia, hypokalemia, and…