Acanthamoeba is a genus of opportunistic protozoan amebic species widely distributed in nature. Furthermore, it is part of a broader family of free-living amebae that can autonomously survive in the environment, but can also parasitize in human, the host, and result in serious infections.
According to a new study proposed at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23–26 April, 2022), disease-causing amoebas that reside on natural leafy vegetables can preserve human pathogens such as Pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Helicobacter, posing a public health hazard. Dr Yolanda Moreno and colleagues from Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de València conducted the research.