H. Schulzkey et al., EFFICACY OF IVERMECTIN IN THE TREATMENT OF CONCOMITANT MANSONELLA-PERSTANS INFECTIONS IN ONCHOCERCIASIS PATIENTS, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 87(2), 1993, pp. 227-229
Citations number
26
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
As part of an ivermectin dose-ranging study of onchocerciasis patients
in Togo, 55 onchocerciasis patients with concomitant mansonelliasis r
eceived single oral doses either of ivermectin (100 to 200 mug/kg body
weight) or placebo. As expected, Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae in
the skin were greatly reduced in number soon after drug treatment, bu
t microfilariae of Mansonella perstans reacted differently. Microfilar
ial densities of M. perstans were assessed with a filtration technique
both before, and 4 times after, treatment. In untreated patients micr
ofilarial densities were stable until the end of the study at 6 months
. In patients receiving ivermectin, microfilarial densities dropped on
average to less than 60% of the pre-treatment level and remained ther
e until the final post-treatment examination. This partial reduction w
as probably not caused by a microfilaricidal effect of ivermectin, but
rather by an altered distribution of microfilariae in the peripheral
blood and in a suspected microfilarial reservoir.