Artesunate and praziquantel for the treatment of Schistosoma haematobium infections: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study

Recently, artemisinin derivatives have been shown to be efficacious in chem oprophylaxis of and chemotherapy for Schistosoma japonicum and S. mansoni i nfections. Therefore, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was carried out to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of artesunate plus placebo and the combination of artesunate and praziquantel in the trea tment of S. haematobium infections in Gabon. The 300 infected schoolchildre n included in the study were randomized to receive artesunate plus placebo (n = 90), praziquantel plus placebo (n = 90), artesunate and praziquantel ( n = 90), or only placebo (). End points were efficacy, assessed as cure on day 56, and tolerability. All treatment regimens were well tolerated. The p raziquantel plus placebo-treated group attained a cure rate of 73%, artesun ate plus placebo a rate of 27%, the combination of artesunate and praziquan tel a rate of 81%, and placebo alone a rate of 20%. In summary, earlier fin dings of efficacy of artemisinin derivatives against S. mansoni and S. japo nicum could not be confirmed in S. haematobium infections.