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Mexico City--Amebiasis, the diarrheal disease caused by Entanoeba histolytica, is one of those serious diseases that tend to get short shrift from funding agencies in rich countries like the United States. But not in Mexico. For more than 20 years, Mexico has produced some of the world's leading researchers studying E. histolytica, a protozoan that afflicts millions of people with diarrhea and, in extreme cases, causes liver abscesses. All told, the organism accounts for an estimated 100,000 deaths a year. "The largest center for doing work on amebiasis in the world is Mexico," says Louis Diamond, who studied amebiasis for 35 years at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Diamond, who retired last year, had the only lab on the NIH campus studying the disease. In contrast, Mexico City's Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) alone has three prominent amebiasis research groups. "In the long term, [Mexican researchers have] made some of the really pivotal observations," says Sharon Reed, an amebiasis researcher at the University of California, San Diego. "They were pioneers in the field, and they're still in there." Their work touches on almost every aspect of the disease: how prevalent it is, how E. hiscolytica destroys cells, how to detect it, and what proteins it contains. Mexican investigators have also been key players in a debate about whether or not there is a benign strain of Entamoeba as well as the disease-causing one--a debate whose outcome will shape future public-health strategies (see box).
Mexico's commitment to amebiasis research stems from its high rate of the disease: A recent survey of nearly 70,000 Mexican blood samples revealed that 8.4% showed evidence of prior infection with a disease-causing strain of the amoeba. Mexican researchers hope their work will lead to new treatment and vaccine strategies. There is certainly a need for new approaches: Although the drug metronidazole is effective against acute amebiasis, the disease still causes over 1200 deaths annually in Mexico alone. And because it can be...