Related Experiment Videos
The efficacy of three anthelmintic drugs given in a single dose
E Sorensen1, M Ismail, D K Amarasinghe
1Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo.
Objective:
To compare the efficacy of a single dose mebendazole 500 mg from the original manufacturer and a formulation locally produced by State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation of Sri Lanka and albendazole 400 mg in mass treatment of soil-transmitted nematode infections.
Design:
Randomised trial.
Setting:
Government owned plantations in low-country regions of Sri Lanka with poor sanitary facilities.
Subjects:
399 children 3 to 15 years of age infected with at least one type soil-transmitted nematode.
Intervention:
Mebendazole 500 mg or albendazole 400 mg given as single dose treatment.
Measurements:
Cure rates and egg reduction rates calculated from egg counts of pre- and post-treatment stool samples using the quantitative Kato-Katz technique.
Results:
All three drugs were effective against Ascaris infection with cure rates above 95%. The efficacy against Trichuris trichuria was uniformly poor. For hookworm infection albendazole appeared to be more effective in a single dose with cure rates of 77.9% compared with 28.7% and 35.8% for the two mebendazole formulations; corresponding egg reduction rates were 95.4% compared with 72.0% and 74.5%.
Conclusion:
Albendazole is the drug of choice for mass deworming where hookworm disease is prominent. There was no statistically significant difference between the original and locally produced mebendazole.