E. histolytica: climate 



Total — 532 replies from 44 state; 24 or 4.5 per cent 

 reported increase but not serious. 



The conclusion reached was that the increase in clin- 

 ical amcebiasis, if any really occurred, was not serious 

 enough to warrant the attempt to eliminate the carriers 

 among the returned soldiers by treatment. 



Epidemics of amcebiasis. That clinical amcebiasis may 

 exist in epidemic form is claimed by several writers. Thus 

 Craig ( 1926a) states that epidemics of amoebic dysentery 

 occurred among the U. S. troops in the Philippine Islands 

 during the Philippine Insurrection, and a series of cases 

 reported by Voss (1925) indicate that the presence of 

 carriers may bring about an epidemic of amcebiasis in a 

 northern climate (Norway) even at an unfavorable time 

 of the year (the middle of winter). A young man con- 

 tracted dysentery in Calcutta ; three or four months later 

 he arrived at his home in Norway; three days after his 

 arrival his father was taken ill, developed amoebic dysen- 

 tery and died ; the day after the father's death his nurse 

 came down with dysentery. 



The relation between climate and infections with E. 

 histolytica. A.moebiasis has for many years. been included 

 among the tropical diseases because of the great number 

 of acute cases that occur in the tropics- as compared with 

 the temperate regions ; but surveys have within the past 

 decade been made in almost all parts of the world and 

 we now know that infection of man with E. histolytica 

 is much more common than generally supposed and ex- 

 ists throughout the entire globe. There may be local 

 areas that are free from it but these have not yet been 

 circumscribed. The incidence of infection varies in differ- 



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