Digestive health centre

If you have amoebic dysentery, your diarrhoea may go away without treatment. But if the amoeba parasites that made you ill are still living in your bowels (intestines), you can get diarrhoea again. Treatment can help clear up your symptoms and kill the amoebas in your bowels.

Key messages about treatments for amoebic dysentery

• Taking drugs called antibiotics can get rid of your diarrhoea and clear up the infection in your bowels.

• You'll usually be given two drugs if you have amoebic dysentery. You first take a drug called metronidazole, then switch to another drug called diloxanide furoate.^[26]

• The diarrhoea you get if you have amoebic dysentery can make your body lose too much water. So it's important to drink lots of fluids.

• It's important to wash your hands thoroughly after going to the toilet and before preparing food. This can stop amoebic dysentery spreading to other people.

Treatments for amoebic dysentery

• Antibiotics (tinidazole and metronidazole)

We haven't looked at the research on these treatments in the same way we have for the other treatments on our site. To read more, see Our method. But we've included them here because they're sometimes used to treat amoebic dysentery and you may have questions about them.

• Diloxanide furoate

Glossary

diarrhoea

Diarrhoea is when you have loose, watery stools and you need to go to the toilet far more often than usual. Doctors say you have diarrhoea if you need to go to the toilet more than three times a day.

For more terms related to Amoebic dysentery

Citations