Amebic meningoencephalitis.

As the result of research by many workers, information as to the accurate diagnosis and possibly effective treatment has accumulated. While much more definitive academic investigation will aid in improving the results of medical management, the next objective should be the serious study of patients with suggestive histories and with acute and chronic respiratory ailments for the possible role of free-living amebas therein. The state of the art has reached the point where the two free-living amebic infections can probably be diagnosed by direct examination of exudates from the respiratory tract before the diseases become serious and beyond treatment. At present, the lack of effort to do this is as if one were trying to diagnose amebic dysentery histolytica in the diagnosis of entamebiasis. There is need for increased effort by local health officials, parents, clinicians and laboratory scientists to attempt to prevent the tragic consequences of naegleramebiasis by all possible means, at facilities near the patient's home. While the prospects of effectively handling the problem of acanthamoebiasis are less promising, earlier recognition of it in patients now known likely to develop such an infection might lead to better understanding the approaches to its treatment.