My 22 year old athletic and very healthy cousin returned from South Africa 2 months ago and has been in the hospital since. Her symptoms are chronic diarrhea, degeneration of her colon, blood in her stool, inability to eat solid foods, and now debilitating headache. I have searched as many websites as I can find, nothing comes up. Doctors are telling her she suddenly developed ulcerative colitis, she'll need a colostomy, etc. We all think she had to have gotten something in SA.
Has anyone ever heard of a parasitic infection from this part of the world that causes these symptoms?