Free living, cosmopolitan amoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba present a serious risk to human health. As facultative human parasites, these amoebae may cause health and life-threatening diseases, such as Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE) and cutaneous acanthamebiasis. AK is a severe, vision-threatening cornea infection with non-specific symptoms and course. GAE is a unique central nervous system disease, almost always leading to death. Cutaneous acanthamebiasis is most common in patients with AIDS. The pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the diseases is still incompletely understood, therefore no definitive effective therapy is currently available. Prevention is very difficult due toAcanthamoeba ubiquity and resistance. Further studies on effective solutions for the prevention and treatment of Acanthamoeba infections are needed.
1. Introduction. 2. Genus Acanthamoeba. 2.1. Occurrence. 2.2. Pathogenicity. 3. Acanthamoeba keratitis – AK. 3.1. Risk factors. 3.2. Course of the disease. 3.3. Diagnostics. 3.4. Treatment and prevention. 4. Granulomatous amebic encephalitis – GAE. 4.1. Course of disease. 4.2. Diagnostics and treatment. 5.Cutaneousacanthamebiasis. 5.1. Course of disease. 5.2. Diagnostics and treatment. 6. Summary
