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China tests new drug to fight intestinal worms

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-15 12:50

HONG KONG - A new drug from China appears to be effective in getting rid of a number of intestinal worms, a problem that plagues more than a billion people around the world.

Worms cause anemia, weight loss among infants and malnutrition, and they can retard mental and physical growth. As a result, they can exact a huge economic burden on affected communities.

Making matters worse, over time these parasites have become increasingly resistant to the handful of available drugs, posing an urgent need to find new medicines to fight them.

In a study, researchers in southwestern China tested the efficacy of the new Chinese drug tribendimidine against threadworm and tapeworm, which are still not effectively controlled by common drugs.

These two parasitic worms are endemic in China and especially prevalent among its ethnic minority groups, whose traditional diets include raw or undercooked meats including pork and beef.

The study, published in the open-access journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Neglected Tropical Diseases, involved 123 villagers from Nongyang in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

The commonly used drug albendazole was given to 66 of the villagers for two weeks, while the remaining 57 were administered tribendimidine. Stool samples collected before and after treatment were examined for eggs of the parasitic worms.

While both drugs reduced the prevalence of threadworm, there was no obvious difference in their efficacy. Tribendimidine, however, appeared more effective in fighting tapeworm than albendazole, according to the report.

Both drugs were especially effective against large roundworms and hookworms but were nearly ineffective against whipworms.

The researchers called for more studies to be done to determine the best dosages for tribendimidine.

"The exposure of the parasites to sub-curative doses exacerbates the risk of resistance development," they added.

The study was carried out jointly by the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel and China's National Institute of Parasitic Diseases (IPD) in Shanghai, Yunnan Institute of Parasitic Diseases and Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Wuxi.