[Treatment of strongyloidiasis with mebendazole and its combination with thiabendazole]

Although Strongyloides stercoralis (S. stercoralis) infection rate in Okinawa Prefecture was less than 2% by the traditional method, it has been proven to be 6.2% by the new technique--agar plate method. Thiabendazole has strong activity to eradicate the organism, but it is well known that the rate of severe side effects is extremely high. Therefore, we attempted to evaluate the new treatment for the infection by mebendazole and its combination with thiabendazole. The reason for use of the drug is based on the reports of successful treatment of S. stercoralis infection in humans with the mild and infrequent side effects produced by the drug. Thirty three patients were orally given mebendazole 100 mg twice daily for 28 days. Twenty six patients were given thiabendazole 500 mg thrice daily for 5 days and after that, mebendazole 100 mg twice daily for 9 days. This combination therapy was repeated twice. The following results were obtained: 1) Out of a total of 59 patients, the cure rate was 83.3% (20/24) in single use of mebendazole and 100.0% (22/22) in the combination therapy. 2) Constipation (9.1%) and headache (9.1%) were of relatively high incidence in the mebendazole group, but they were mild. Nausea (19.2%) and headache (15.4%) were observed in the combination therapy group and the drug was discontinued in 2 patients. 3) The incidence of the elevation of S-GOT, S-GPT was noted in 71.4% (20/28) for the mebendazole group and 52.2% (12/23) for combination therapy group. All 13 patients of the mebendazole group were negative in lymphocyte stimulation test for mebendazole.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)