AMEBIASIS: CONTROLLED LINEAR STUDIES ON NONDYSENTERIC AND MILD HEPATIC FORMS IN EGYPTIANS

Abstract

Serial clinicocoprologic studies were made in a "double blind" manner, on "apparently healthy" Egyptian employees for 24 weeks before treatment and 24 weeks after treatment with conventional courses of carbarsone and vioform, and chloroquin in addition if hepatic involvement was suspected clinically. Pre- and post-treatment groups harboring both large and small races of Entamoeba histolytica, and, to a lesser extent, groups with the small race only, had higher fre-quencies of gastrointestinal symptoms and abdominal signs than controls with persistently negative stools. The findings are interpreted as clinical support for the concept of mild pathogenicity of the small race and for the concept that "apparently healthy carriers" of either race may have mild symptoms and signs of intestinal and hepatic amebiasis if followed serially over a long enough period.