The prevalence of invasive amebiasis is not increased in patients with AIDS.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the frequency or severity of invasive amebiasis is increased in patients with AIDS.

DESIGN: A case-control sampling approach, based on an autopsy registry.

SETTING: General Hospital of Mexico City, Mexico, a large government-supported, tertiary care medical institution.

PATIENTS, PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-four patients with AIDS and 335 historical and contemporary, age- and sex-matched controls who were defined as dying, but not because of AIDS.

RESULTS: The odds ratio (OR) for mortality from invasive amebiasis was the same for cases and controls (0.7; 95% confidence interval, 0.07-7.2). By contrast, the OR for other diseases, such as miliary tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and toxoplasmosis was greatly increased. Only one patient with AIDS had amebiasis of the common amebic ulcerative colitis type, without extraintestinal involvement.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we show that the frequency and severity of invasive amebiasis is not increased in Mexican patients with AIDS.