A long-term follow up study of amoebiasis treated with metronidazole

Metronidazole, in a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight in 3 divided doses for 10 days was used to treat 194 patients infected with Entamoeba histolytica. When 166 subjects were checked 1 month after treatment, with 3 stool samples taken on different days, 20 failures were found giving a parasitic cure rate of 88%. A lower-than-expected failure rate was noted in children, immigrants and asymptomatic subjects. No more failures were found in 78 patients who went through an extended follow-up, with examinations after 4 and 10-12 months.