title: Chemotherapy in the control of urinary schistosomiasis in Nigeria.
abstract: Praziquantel (Biltricide, Bayer AG), which has been found to be very effective in the treatment of schistosomiasis, was evaluated to formulate the minimal cost-effective dose in selective chemotherapy of 135 school children aged 6-15 years. Side effects were minimal. The drug had no effect on the heavy load of intestinal helminths found in 78.1% of the subjects. However, it cleared the urinary schistosomiasis in all but 0.9% of the subjects at the dosages used and after 18 months only 0.59% of the entire school population had new infections. The targetted chemotherapy reduced the prevalence rate from 16.0% to 0.59%. The lowest dose of 1 X 20 mg/kg body weight was able to clear the light infections of 52 subjects. This has a great economic advantage because the drug is expensive and most of the infections in Nigeria are light to moderate.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria; D010270:Parasite Egg Count; D011223:Praziquantel / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012553:Schistosomiasis haematobia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D011223:Praziquantel