Different amoeba, different target, different symptoms. Only just ugly, one almost always fatal.
Entamoeba histolytica, GI symptoms usually, ugly diarrhea and sometimes organ (liver, etc,) abscesses. Abscesses may be fatal if untreated. Diarrhea ugly but most often self-limiting. Possibly fatal from dehydration if untreated or in immunocompromised patients.
Naegleria fowleri, pretty much ubiquitous in warm, fresh, water, enters through the nose and causes Primary Amoebic Encephalitis (PAM). Called the "Brain Eating Amoeba" by the press. Uncommon disease, but RARELY survivable. Per the CDC "Only 3 people out of 138 known infected individuals in the United States from 1962 to 2015 have survived." Check out Animal Planet's "Monsters Inside Me":
http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/mo ... ng-amoeba/
One PAM survivor in 1978 at the hospital I used to work at, San Bernardino County Medical Center, before I started. Our Lab Tech saw the amoeboid movement in the CSF during a chamber cell count.
Tom
