New review article “An update on Acanthamoeba keratitis: diagnosis, pathogenesis and treatment”, by Jacob Lorenzo-Morales, Naveed A. Khan and Julia Walochnik (February 2015)

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Published on 17 February 2015

At the occasion of the ICOPA XIII congress, which was held in August 2014 in Mexico, selected authors were invited to publish papers in the Open Access peer-reviewed journal Parasite. A review on Acanthamoeba keratitis was chosen.

This high-quality 20-page review, with several original figures, deals with a worldwide increase in parasitic human infection. The three authors, Jacob Lorenzo-Morales (University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain), Naveed A. Khan (Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan) and Julia Walochnik (Medical University of Vienna, Austria) present their current understanding on eye infections by amoebas, based on their long experience as leading scientists for this parasitic disease.

Free-living amoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba are causal agents of a severe sight-threatening infection of the cornea known as Acanthamoeba keratitis. The number of reported cases worldwide is increasing every year, mostly in contact lens wearers. Acanthamoeba keratitis has remained significant despite the advances in antimicrobial chemotherapy and supportive care. Altogether, this review may serve as the milestone for developing an effective solution for the prevention, control and treatment of Acanthamoeba infections.

Parasite being an open-access journal published under a Creative Commons licence (CC 4.0), the text and the figures can be freely re-used, provided that the source is correctly cited.