How to Treat Acanthamoeba

Acanthamoeba is a common microscopic amoeba that lives in water, soil or air. Because it is so common in the environment, exposure at some point in a person's life is likely. Although it rarely makes people sick, it does have the potential to cause severe infections, primarily of the eye, skin or brain and spinal cord.

Treating Acanthamoeba requires prescription drugs from a doctor and immediate intervention; catching the infection early on in its progression is critical to successful outcomes for the two types of infection that are treatable.

Instructions

Treating Acanthamoeba Infection

• 1

  Talk to an eye doctor immediately if you think you may have Acanthamoeba keratitis--an infection of the eye. Early diagnosis is the key to successful treatment and avoiding blindness. Eye pain or redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light and a feeling that something is in the eye are all symptoms.

  The doctor can treat an Acanthamoeba infection of the eye with several different kinds of prescription eye medication. Because the infection can sometimes be a complex one to treat, your doctor will tailor your treatment to the specifics of your infection. Combination therapy, using two or three biocides (such as chlorhexidine or polyhexamethylene biguanide) along with antibiotics, seems to be the standard method of treatment. Therapy can last between six months to a year.

• 2

  See your primary care physician if you think you have an Acanthamoeba skin infection. Reddish nodules, skin ulcers or abscesses are possible ways the infection can manifest on the skin. A skin infection by Acanthamoeba is more difficult to treat for a few reasons.

  Early diagnosis is difficult because the symptoms vary from person to person, and patients frequently do not notice skin infections until they have progressed. Acanthamoeba skin infections usually present in patients with compromised or weakened immune systems, making treatment all the more critical and complex--but treatment is possible. Acanthamoeba skin infections usually respond to combination therapy involving amphotericin B and voriconazole, two powerful systemic antifungal drugs.

• 3

  Call your doctor immediately if you think you have an Acanthamoeba infection of the brain or spinal cord. Acanthamoeba encephalitis presents with loss of coordination, fever, muscular weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, sensitivity to light, double vision and changes in mental status. Striking patients with weakened immune systems, these infections are fatal. Although fewer than 2 to 3 percent of patients with this disease survive, doctors have attempted to treat it with powerful antifungal drugs or the sulfa class of antibiotics.