EXAMINATION FOR AMEBIASIS

To the Editor:—  The special articles on the outbreak of amebiasis in Chicago are most commendable. In a recent one you suggest that the stools should be examined one month after cessation of treatment, the inference being that if the results are negative the patient is cured and parasite free. In my experience with this disorder I have found that one cannot be sure that the patient is parasite free (which condition should be accomplished if possible) without this being judged by examinations made four times in the year after the cessation of treatment. At one month after active treatment the stools usually are free from the vegetative forms and so few cysts are present that they are not found. For each of these third month examinations (in the absence of symptoms) the gravitation or sedimentation methods for cysts are the most important, and these will often disclose the carrier.