Antibiotics in the chemotherapy of amebiasis.

Amoebiasis is a widespread disease with high prevalence in tropical countries and environments with poor sanitation. The treatment of either intestinal and extra-intestinal localization of Entamoeba histolytica or encephalic lesions sustained by Acanthamoeba and Naegleria has been the object of a wealth of research. Antibiotics played a dominant role in this field. Their antiamebic activity is due either to direct action on the protozoan and/or inhibition of symbiotic bacterial flora. Presently they still are an important component of the therapeutic armamentarium but they are supplanted as drugs of first choice by synthetic compounds whose structure has been designed on the bases of studies on the mechanism of action of some antibiotics.