Medicine

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/12

This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Helminthiasis-drug therapy

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Geo-helminth infections in a rural area of Sri Lanka
    (SEAMEO Regional Tropical Medicine and Public Health Project, 2001) Fernando, S.D.; Goonethilleke, H.; Weerasena, K.H.; Kuruppuarachchi, N.D.; Tilakaratne, D.; de Silva, D.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.
    School children carry the heaviest burden of morbidity due to intestinal helminth infection. The objective of this investigation was to study geo-helminth infections in 349 school children aged 6 to 13 years living in a rural area of Sri Lanka. Stool samples were examined by direct saline smear in an initial survey to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and thereafter the children were followed up over a two year period with cross sectional surveys of stool samples being carried out at yearly intervals. Following collection of a stool sample, all the subjects were treated with mebendazole 500 mg as a single dose. Weights and heights were measured using standardized procedures. 2 ml of venous blood were collected from each subject under aseptic conditions to determine hematological indices. The prevalence of geo-helminth infections was low, and the prevalence declined during the two-year period from 5.4 percent in 1997 to 2.2 percent in 1998 and 2.0 percent in 1999 following yearly mass anti-helminth treatment. The incidence density was 0.021 cases per child year. The reduction in the prevalence from the baseline to the second survey is probably due to the reduction of the reservoir of infection among children as a result of mass treatment at baseline. The prevalence of infection during the second and third surveys were almost the same probably due to infections originating from other segments of the untreated population.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Anthelmintics: a review of their comparative clinical pharmacology
    (Springer International, 1997) de Silva, N.; Guyatt, H.; Bundy, D.
    Virtually all the important helminth infections in humans can be treated with one of 5 anthelmintics currently in use: albendazole, mebendazole, diethylcarbamazine, ivermectin and praziquantel. These drugs are vital not only for the treatment of individual infections, but also useful in controlling transmission of the more common infections. This article reviews briefly the pharmacology of these 5 drugs, and then discusses current issues in the use of anthelmintics in the treatment and/or control of soil-transmitted nematode infections, filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis (and other trematode infections), neurocysticercosis and hydatidosis. Mebendazole and albendazole are most effective against intestinal nematodes, but are contraindicated during the first trimester of pregnancy. The efficacy of prolonged therapy with these 2 drugs for treatment of larval cestode infections has not yet been established. Diethylcarbamazine is widely used to treat and control lymphatic filariasis, but adverse effects related to death of microfilariae or damage to adult worms may be marked. While ivermectin has been used in the treatment of patients with onchocerciasis, it is also undergoing investigation against lymphatic filariae. Praziquantel, used to treat schistosome infections, is also effective in other trematode infections and adult cestode infections
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Albendazole in the treatment of goehelminth infections in children
    (Sri Lanka Medical Association, 1989) de Silva, D.G.H.; Hettiarachchi, S.P.; Fonseka, P.H.
    Children with mixed helminthic infections between the ages of 2 and 14 years, from a slum area, were treated with two regimes of albendazole. A majority of children had moderate to heavy infections with Trichuris trichiura (greater than 70%) and Ascaris lumbricoides (greater than 84%). Children treated with a single 400 mg dose of albendazole showed a very good response in ascariasis with 100% cure rate irrespective of the severity of infection. In Trichuriasis (n = 40), a cure rate of 50% was observed in mild infections, but only a reduction in the egg counts of 60% and 57% respectively were observed in moderate and heavy infections. Only 10 patients with Necator americanus infections were treated with the single dose, and the cure rate in mild infections was satisfactory (86%), with an overall egg reduction rate of 95%. In 47 children included in the multiple dose regime (200 mg daily x 3 days), the cure rates in trichuriasis were, 82%, 66%, and 37% respectively in mild, moderate, and heavy infections. The egg reduction rate was 98% in all degrees of infection in trichuriasis. The cure rate in ascariasis, with the multiple dose regime was similar to that of the single dose, with 100% egg reduction, irrespective of the severity of infection.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Single dose treatment of mixed helminth infections--a comparison of three different regimes
    (Sri Lanka Medical Association, 1987) de Silva, D.G.H.; Lionel, N.D.; Premaratne, U.N.; Warnasuriya, N.; Soysa, P.E.; Fonseka, P.H.
    No abstract available
All items in this Institutional Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. No item in the repository may be reproduced for commercial or resale purposes.