[A rare cause of 2 unclear fatalities: undiagnosed acute and chronic amebiasis].

Two cases are reported of unexpected and unclarified death caused by an infection with Entamoeba histolytica. The first case concerned a German whose disease was not diagnosed during the asymptomatic phase (2 years' duration) or in the acute phase during the last 3 weeks before death. This is typical of the disease. In the final phase, he developed a hepatic abscess. Death occurred as a consequence of bilateral apoplexia in the adrenal glands. In the second case a Turk fell ill with gastralgia and diarrhea. Developing hepatic insufficiency with comsumptive coagulopathy, he died after 6 days. Intoxication and/or intolerance of fructose were assumed as tentative diagnoses. These two cases show clearly that even outside an endemic area, one has to reckon with the possibility of amebiasis.