Primary cutaneous amebiasis with a fatal outcome.

We report a fatal case of disseminated amebiasis in a young African woman, which initially presented with an ulcerated cutaneous lesion on the left flank. The causative organism was confirmed by examination of a wet drop preparation from the ulcer discharge and by skin biopsy. The patient was not immunosuppressed and was treated unsuccessfully with metronidazole. Postmortem examination revealed the presence of intestinal amebiasis complicated by a liver abscess.