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?

Hi
so sorry to hear of this

I am from South Africa, tho I havent lived there for many years.

which part of SA did she visit?

I was interested to read that she is being dx with ulcerative colitis as just recently I have been reading up on Crohn's Disease being possibly caused by bacteria and so wonder if this could be what is happening, especially as symptoms are very much alike

hope you find answers

Cheri

Thanks for your input. I will try to get in touch with her family and ask that question. They just now, after two months, brought in a travel disease doctor. Hopefully it's not too late, and she can be treated and cured of whatever it is she might have.

I'm leaving out most things as I am pretty sure immunizations for some of these things are required. If she didn't get any immunizations, check the links below as they will list what I didn't. Hopefully someone more savvy than I will come along and offer you better information. I'd strongly suggest getting an infectious disease specialist in there or directly calling the CDC before letting anyone remove anything from her that will have such a huge impact on her future.

This isn't a complete list, but hopefully it will help out some. I'll add some symptoms below the names, but in certain cases they won't apply so I will leave a link for all of the ones and you can click and read at your convenience.


Chagas Disease

Some people can be infected and never develop symptoms. For those who do, Chagas disease has three stages, each with different symptoms.

* Acute infection -- A few people (about 1% of cases) have symptoms soon after infection. The most recognized acute symptom is swelling of the eye on one side of the face, usually at the bite wound or where feces were rubbed into the eye. Other symptoms are tiredness, fever, enlarged liver or spleen, swollen lymph glands, and sometimes a rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting. Infants and very young children can get an often-fatal swelling of the brain.
* Indeterminate stage: During the indeterminate stage, about 8 to 10 weeks after infection, infected persons have no symptoms.
* Chronic infection: Some people develop serious, irreversible damage to the heart or intestinal tract that appears 10 to 20 years after infection. Heart-related problems include an enlarged heart, altered heart rate or rhythm, heart failure, or cardiac arrest. Enlargement of parts of the digestive tract can result in severe constipation or problems with swallowing.

Dengue Fever

Clinical Presentation

Dengue fever is characterized by sudden onset after an incubation period of 3-14 days (most commonly 4-7 days) of high fevers, severe frontal headache, and joint and muscle pain. Many patients have nausea, vomiting, and a maculopapular rash, which appears 3-5 days after onset of fever and can spread from the torso to the arms, legs, and face. The disease is usually self-limited, although convalescence can be prolonged. Most patients report a nonspecific viral syndrome or a flu-like illness. Asymptomatic infections are also common.

Lymphatic Filariasis

Leishmaniasis

Description
Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease caused by obligate intracellular protozoa, is transmitted by the bite of infected female phlebotomine sand flies (1-3). The disease has two major forms: cutaneous leishmaniasis, which causes skin sores, and visceral leishmaniasis, which affects some of the internal organs of the body (e.g., spleen, liver, and bone marrow).

Rickettsial Infections
Please review link as there's too many symptoms to list!

Trypanosomiasis

Clinical Presentation
Signs and symptoms are initially nonspecific (fever, skin lesions, rash, edema, or lymphadenopathy); however, the infection progresses to meningoencephalitis. Systemic symptoms generally appear within 1 to 3 weeks of infection. East African trypanosomiasis is more acute clinically, with earlier central nervous system involvement than in the West African form of the disease. Untreated cases are eventually fatal.

Schistosomiasis

Clinical Presentation
Clinical manifestations of acute infection can occur within 2-12 weeks of exposure to cercariae-infested water, but most acute infections are asymptomatic. The most common acute syndrome is Katayama fever. Symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal pain, hematuria, weakness, headaches, joint and muscle pain, diarrhea, nausea, and cough. Rarely, the central nervous system can be involved, producing seizures or transverse myelitis as a result of mass lesions of the brain or spinal cord. Chronic infections can cause disease in the liver, intestinal tract, bladder (including bladder cancer), kidneys, or lung.

Poliomyelitis

Description
Poliomyelitis is an acute viral infection that involves the gastrointestinal tract and occasionally the central nervous system.

Tuberculosis and Malaria are also listed.

More information below from, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

Southern Africa

Vector-borne infections are common in parts of the region. Access to clean water and sanitary disposal of waste are highly variable but are poor in some areas (especially some rural areas). Vaccine coverage is high in some populations, but vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria, persist in parts of the region. Polio reappeared in 2006 in Namibia. More common infections in travelers include gastrointestinal infections, African tick-bite fever, and malaria. Infections in immigrants (and long-term residents from the region) include tuberculosis, HIV, schistosomiasis, and intestinal parasites.

Vector-borne infections: Malaria is present in parts of all countries in the region ex-cept Lesotho, although the risk is focal or seasonal in many areas. African tick-bite fever (Rickettsia africae) continues to be common in travelers to the region, especially South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Other vector-borne infections include tick-borne relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever,* dengue (focal outbreaks but larger areas infested with Aedes aegypti), tick-borne relapsing fever, murine typhus, West Nile fever, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.* African trypanosomiasis has been reported from Botswana and Namibia in the past. Tungiasis is reported from South Africa.

Food- and water-borne infections: Risk for hepatitis A is high in parts of the region and outbreaks of hepatitis E have been reported. Risk for dysentery and diarrhea is highly variable within the region. Diarrhea in travelers may be caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Other risks for travelers include typhoid and paratyphoid fever and amebiasis. Cholera is sporadic and epidemic (outbreaks in 2004 in South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe). Intestinal helminths, although common in some local populations, are rare in short-term travelers.

Airborne and person-to-person transmission: The estimated incidence rate of tuberculosis is >300 per 100,000 population in the region.

Sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections: HIV prevalence in antenatal clinics exceeds 25% in many countries in the region; 15%-34% of adults aged 15-49 years are infected. Prevalence of chronic carriage of hepatitis B virus exceeds 8%.

Zoonotic infections: The mongoose is a source of rabies, in addition to domestic dogs and other animals. Plague* is enzootic, and sporadic cases and outbreaks have occurred in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe since 1990. Anthrax* is hyperendemic in Zimbabwe, with recent outbreaks in animals and also human cases. Sporadic cases of anthrax have been reported elsewhere in the region.

Soil- and water-associated infections: Focal active areas of schistosomiasis persist (caused by Schistosoma mansoni, S. haematobium, and S. mattheei). Cutaneous larva migrans can occur after exposures on beaches. Leptospirosis* has caused outbreaks. Histoplasmosis has caused an outbreak in South Africa.


I'd also recommend checking this link out, too: Introduction: Parasitic Infections


I wish the best of luck to you and your family and hope your cousin is cured very soon!