Whatever it is, for Giambi it's not "potentially fatal."
What a bogus crock of shit the newspapers and media in general are peddling today.
Sure, amoebic dysentary, commonly called amebiasis (caused by the microscopic one-celled parasite Entamoeba histolytica), can make you really sick, but for crying out loud, 10% of the world's population - over 600 million people - have it, and they're not all dropping dead, are they?
You get amebiasis when you eat food or drink water containing the parasite.
It's endemic in poor countries, but infected people can transmit it by handling food in the kitchen of a five-star restaurant in New York City.
In more than 90% the of people who have it - and are contagious - the amoeba causes no symptoms, so they don't even know they have it.
In rare cases, the parasite makes its way to the liver, where it sets up shop and can be hard to detect.
It takes years of being infected for that to happen - not Giambi's problem.
Chances are he doesn't even have amebiasis.
And even if he does, a course of antibiotics will cure him.
Poor Jason.
He's yet another victim - the last famous one to come to mind was (the late) Olivia Goldsmith - of V.I.P. medicine.
V.I.P. medicine can be fatal, and is far more dangerous than amebiasis.
What happens is a well-known person gets treated differently than the run-of-the-mill nobody like me or you.
When that happens, all bets are off.
Because good medical care means getting what works for most people most of the time when they're managed the usual way.
Giambi's seeing doctor after doctor, each of whom is diagnosing different things and prescribing more tests.
The more tests, the more chances of a false positive, which then engenders a work-up often ending in disaster for the poor patient.
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