PARASITES OF SOCIETY: GETTING THEM OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM
Nematodes (worms): three anthelmintics graded for activity The 3 antheimintics, fiubendazole 300mg/day for 2 days, oxantel-pyrantel I Omg/kg in a single dose, and mebendazole 600mg in a single dose, were given to 184 patienl .. who had t richuriasis (egg counts carried out on each one) with or without ascariasis and / or hook worm infestations (no egg counts were done). Three or four weeks after t reatment, Trichuris egg
counts were repeated, and showed an 83. 14% reduction on fl ubendazole (53 patients), 74.08% reduction on oxantelpyrantel (65 patients) and 71.96 % on mebendai:ole (66 patients - al l with light infections, < 5000 eggs! g). Cure rates for Trichuris infection were: flubendazole 13.2 %, oxantel-pyrantel 7.7 % and mebendazole 45.5 %, the high success rate of the
last probably due to the light infection. Cure rates for Ascaris and hookworm were as usual considerably higher (Trichuris is notoriously difficult to eliminate), with oxantel-pyrantel giving the highest rate for Ascaris (95 96 ) followed by mebendazole (94.1 96) and flubendazole
(89.6 96 ) while mebendazole gave the highest cu re rate for hook worm (88.2 96 ) followed by oxantel-pyrantel (72.7 %) and
flubendazole (42. 1 %) Cabrera, B.D. et al. : South East Asian, Journal of Tropical Medici~ al'l(l Public Health 1 l : 502 IDee (980).1
Trematodes (flukes): promising praziquantel for Opisthorcis ... The promising new anthelmintic praziquantel was given in 2 dosage regimens (25mg / kg t id for I day or 2 days) to 58 patients with Opislhords vil'errini infections. Follow-up checks were carried out between \ -8 months. By 30 days, al l patients except I were negative for egg counts, and after Ihat (60 days onwards) all patients were negative. This suggests that occasional ly some fl ukes may take up to a month to stop producing eggs and die. Side effects occurred in some 80 % of pat ients (but were m ilder and of shorter duration on the I-day .regimen), consisting mainly of headache, dizzi ness, myalgia,
and lassitude, though no laboratory toxiCity was evident. BWlnag, O. and Harinasuta. T.: South East Asian Journal of T ropical Medicine and Publ ic Healill It: 528 ([lee t 980V
... and for Clonorchis too Praziquantel was also given to 63 patients in Korea who were infected with the liver fluke Clol/orchis sinensis, parasitologically confirmed, and quantitated by egg count. 28 patients (5 with heavy infection) received praziquantel as a single
40mg/kg dose and 35 (9 with heavy infection) received three 25.0mg/ kg doses in I day. 30 and 60 days later patients were re-examined and if eggs were still present on either occasion they received a second dose of praziquantel and follow-up cont inued for another 60 days. At 60 days, 7 patients on 40mg/ kg single dose were cured and the other 21 received a second s ingle dose and 7 of these were cured in the following 60 days. The remaining 14 had egg reduct ions > 90 %. 60 days after the init ial t reatment with 3 x 25.0mg/ kg, 30 patients were cured and the other 5 received a second triple dose and were al l
cured by the next follow-up. The anthelmintic was well tolerated, causing some. mild, transient dizziness and headache. Praziquantel could become the
drug of choice for clonorchiasis, especially in large scale com munity health projects. Rim, H.·J. et at.: AlUlals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 75: 27 IFeb 1981) ....
The protozoa: quinacrine vs furazolidone in Giardia ... The drug of choice for Giardia infection in children is considered to be quinacrine, but alternatives, such a..; metronidazole (which is unpleasant for some to take) or fu razolidone (which is more acceptable), a re often necessary. Furazolidone might
be the preferred alternative but it has not been compared with quinacrine. 45 ch ildren with giardiasis were therefore given one of 2 treatments: quinacrine 6mg/kg/day orally for 10 days; or fU razolidone 8mg/kg/ day orally for 10 days. Of the 19 children on fu razolidone (al l under 5 years), 17 (89 %) were cured
10 INPHARMA 13Jun 1981 0156_2103/ 81 / 0613_0010 $00.50/ 0 <I:l ADIS Press
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