Pe. Simonsen et al., BANCROFTIAN FILARIASIS - LONG-TERM EFFECT OF THE DEG PROVOCATIVE DAY TEST ON MICROFILAREMIA, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 91(3), 1997, pp. 290-293
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
The diethylcarbamazine (DEC) provocative day test has been widely used
for daytime diagnosis of Wuchereria bancrofti infections in areas whe
re microfilariae exhibit nocturnal periodicity. Since DEC is also the
primary drug for treatment of bancroftian filariasis, we examined the
long term effect of the rest on microfilaraemia in 2 groups of individ
uals receiving either 100 mg of DEC: (n=51) or placebo (n=20). The low
dose of DEC had a significant therapeutic effect. One year after trea
tment, the geometric mean intensity of microfilaraemia was reduced by
86.1%, and 10.6% of the individuals were amicrofilaraemic. No signific
ant reduction of microfilaraemia was observed in the placebo group. Th
e results imply that the DEC provocative day test should not be used a
s a diagnostic tool in follow-up studies on microfilaraemias.