Q&A: Recurrent Amoebiasis In Children

Question:

My son got amoebiasis when he was three (3) months old. Now that he is seven (7) months old, the diseases is still recurrent. We use distilled water for his milk and now boiling water for bathing. Is there any way to prevent the recurrence of amoebiasis?

Answer:

Amoebiasis is a disease which we get from contaminated food or drink, or which is directly passed from someone’s feces to someone’s mouth. There are several kinds of amoebiasis, but we assume that you are talking about the one that is manifested by diarrhea.

First of all, we want to emphasize that amoebiasis is sometimes over-diagnosed — diarrhea is labeled as amoebiasis when actually it is not. Ideally, an experienced medical technologist examines three (3) fresh samples of feces before a diagnosis is made.

If your child really has amoeba, a repeat examination ten (10) days after the treatment is recommended to be sure of complete recovery. Discuss this with your pediatrician.

How to avoid amoebiasis:

• Have a doctor check all members of your household, especially the food handlers and caregivers (yourself, cook, yaya, etc.). Sometimes, a person can have no diarrhea or any other symptom but is actually passing out amoeba.
• Observe strict sanitary measures in food handling.
• Enforce the hand-washing rule to everyone: Wash hands with soap and water for 30 seconds before handling food, holding and feeding baby. Be sure to wash hands after using the toilet.