To the Editor: I read with great interest the recent updated review of amoebiasis by van Hal and colleagues1 and their previous letter2 describing three cases of locally acquired amoebiasis due to Entamoeba histolytica in Australian men who have sex with men (MSM). These articles should alert clinicians to the emergence of invasive amoebiasis and the possibility of person-to-person transmission of E. histolytica through oral–anal or oral–genital sex among MSM in developed countries. The same phenomenon has been reported in Taiwan3 and Japan.4
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- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
- 1. van Hal SJ, Stark DJ, Fotedar R, et al. Amoebiasis: current status in Australia. Med J Aust 2007; 186: 412-416. <MJA full text>
- 2. Stark DJ, Fotedar R, Ellis JT, Harkness JL. Locally acquired infection with Entamoeba histolytica in men who have sex with men in Australia [letter]. Med J Aust 2006; 185: 417. <MJA full text>
- 3. Hung CC, Deng HY, Hsiao WH, et al. Invasive amebiasis as an emerging parasitic disease in patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection in Taiwan. Arch Intern Med 2005; 165: 409-415.
- 4. Nozaki T, Kobayashi S, Takeuchi T, Haghighi A. Diversity of clinical isolates of Entamoeba histolytica in Japan. Arch Med Res 2006; 37: 277-279.
- 5. Tanyuksel M, Petri WA Jr. Laboratory diagnosis of amebiasis. Clin Microbiol Rev 2003; 16: 713-729.