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Symptoms of Amoebiasis
Around one in ten people who are infected with amoebiasis become ill from the disease.
The symptoms are not usually severe and may be mistaken for diarrhoea. They include:
- pain when pressure is applied over the liver, just under the ribs on the right side,
- loose stools,
- stomach pain, and
- stomach cramps.
Amebic dysentery is a severe form of amoebiasis. The symptoms of amoebic dysentery include:
- severe stomach pain,
- blood and mucus in the stools, and
- high temperature or fever.
Rarely, the infection invades the liver and causes an abscess. Even less commonly, it spreads to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or brain. If the disease has caused liver abscesses, there will be:
- fever and weakness,
- pain in the right shoulder,
- nausea,
- jaundice,
- loss of appetite and
- loss of weight.
Sometimes an abscess may burst upwards through the diaphragm into the lung and the contents can be coughed up.
Symptoms usually develop one to four weeks after infection.
