Resumen

BRACHO MORA, Ángela. Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar in Venezuela from year 2003 to present: A review. Saber [online]. 2015, vol.27, n.1, pp.17-24. ISSN 1315-0162.

Amebiasis is an infection caused by Entamoeba histolytica. It represents one of the main causes of death for protozoans worldwide, ranking in fourth place according to the WHO, due to the high number of people living in extreme poverty, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene standards; these being the major risk factors related to the occurrence of such infections. This amoeba shares similar characteristics with two other species: E. dispar and E. moshkovskii, thus being at present named as complex Entamoeba or Entamoeba histolytica/ dispar/moshkovskii. However, E. histolytica is the only capable of producing damage to the human body by its extraintestinal cycle. For this reason, it is important to use molecular biology techniques for differential diagnosis, although their high costs make it difficult to include these methodologies in the routine laboratory analyses in Venezuela. Therefore, its implementation for the diagnosis of these parasitic agents has mostly been through research. At present, few published epidemiological data about this illness have been released, reason for which there is not an up-to-date register of the true prevalence of these amoebae, giving instead a sub-registry. The tests currently used in routine parasitological laboratories do not discriminate between species, which mainly involves a problem in clinical diagnosis that reflects in the use of inadequate treatment, hampering the restitution of the health of affected patients.

Palabras clave : Amoebiasis; Entamoeba moshkovskii; Venezuela; PCR.

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