Approximately 50 cases are reported each year in Wisconsin. Anyone can get amebiasis, but it occurs more often in people arriving from tropical or subtropical areas, individuals in institutions for the developmentally disabled and homosexual males.
Amebiasis is contracted by swallowing the cyst stage of the parasite in contaminated food or water.
It can also be spread by direct or indirect contact with fecal material from an infected person. People exposed to this parasite may experience mild or severe symptoms or no symptoms at all. Fortunately, most exposed people do not become seriously ill. The mild form of amebiasis includes nausea, loose stools, weight loss, abdominal tenderness and occasionally fever. In rare cases, the parasite will invade the body beyond the intestines and cause a more serious infection, such as a liver abscess.