title: Efficacy and Safety of Paromomycin in Treatment of Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis.
abstract: Background. Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) plays an important role in maintaining endemicity of visceral leishmaniasis and its transmission. Treatment regimens for PKDL are toxic and require 3-4 months of hospitalization. These long and arduous regimens result in extensive noncompliance. There is an urgent need to develop a safe, effective, and acceptable regimen for the treatment of PKDL. Paromomycin (PM) has been recently approved in India for treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL); hence we tested its efficacy in patients with PKDL. Methods. In this exploratory study, 31 patients with PKDL aged 10 years and above were administered PM 11 mg/kg daily intramuscularly for 45  days and followed up for one year. Results. Out of 31 patients, 7 patients were lost to followup at 1  year and 9 (37.5%) got cured with complete disappearance of lesion, while 15 (62.5%) showed no improvement by per protocol analysis. Conclusion. Cure rate with 45 intramuscular injections of PM was unacceptably low though there was no serious side effect of the drug. Whether paromomycin can be used in multidrug therapy to shorten the duration of treatment should be the next logical step for investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sundar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Anup
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Anurag
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Saurabh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Jaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chakravarty
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rai