Pyrantel pamoate therapy of human hookworm infestation in mauritius
Mawdsley, J.H.; Barr, R.D.
East African Medical Journal 52(1): 1-6
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0012-835X PMID: 1140127 Document Number: 92065
In Mauritius, 69 patients aged 16 years and over with hookworm infections were treated with a single oral dose of 1.1g pyrantel pamoate or 5.0g bephenium hydroxynaphthoate, or with a placebo. Faecal examinations before, one and 3 weeks after treatment showed that pyrantel cured (2 successive negative egg counts) 7 of 26, with a mean percentage reduction in egg load of 89%; bephenium cured 3 of 25 (mean egg reduction 75%). Only one of the patients (cured by bephenium) had Ancylostoma duodenale, the rest having Necator americanus. Other gastro-intestinal nematodes were expelled by pyrantel, which produced no obvious side effects. The importance for a valid study of anthelmintic agents in hookworm infection of a placebo group, a double-blind technique and the use of a reliable method for the estimation of egg loads, as well as the choice of patients and formal statistical evaluation, are emphasised.