Problem:

I find it facinating that humans can suffer from an amoeba infestation. Amoeba must reproduce far more slowly than bacteria. In size, they seem to be approximately the same size as the various leukocyte cell types (I see estimates ranging from 10?m to 30?m in diameter). I would assume that they are slow-moving, or, at least no more motile than a leukocyte.

How is it, then, that a population of amoeba can take up residence (and a particularly dangerous one, at that) in a human body without them being wiped out by the immune system?

Required:

Question: Do we know much about the pathology of such an infection?

Question: Do the amoeba actually consume the leukocytes by phagocytosis before they can be consumed themselves?

Does anyone know how to go about this search to explain it.