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A Descriptive Review Of Balamuthia And Non-Keratitis Acanthamoeba Cases In The United States, 1955-2009, Melanie A. Moser

Public Health Theses

Free-living amebae are ubiquitous in the environment and occasionally invade and parasitize host tissues causing illness in humans. Despite possibly frequent exposure to these organisms, infection is rare and why some people, healthy or not, end up with illness and others do not is still unclear. Human infections are rare; when illness does occur, it is often fatal. Only two papers have examined data from the literature and cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and both were published over twenty years ago. The purpose of this study is to better document the epidemiology of Balamuthia and …