Efficacy Albendazole and Levamisole Against STH on Unguja
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2007-09-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Field epidemiological studies undertaken during 2005 in four village locations in Northern
Unguja, Zanzibar examined mothers and their pre-school aged children for helminth infections.
The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides was found to have remained relatively high despite
community-wide treatment with the mass administration of Albendazole (a WHO recommended
de-wormer) in coordination with community vitamin A supplementation.
One hypothesis for this is that the children and mothers had Ascaris infections more tolerant
to Albendazole that subsequently failed to clear. It is necessary to compare the present drug
efficiency of Albendazole (first-line de-wormer) with Levamisole (second-line de-wormer) on
STH infections such patients a case-control setting to shed light on the putative resistance
of local Ascaris/Trichuris to albendazole.
In so doing, this should clarify whether there is resistance developing towards Albendazole
and have possible implications for introducing combination therapies of Levamisole and
Albendazole for first line de-worming mothers and their children in the future.