Evaluation of anthelmintic treatment of Enterobius vermicularis infection in highly endemic population by prolonged observation

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy of anthelmintic treatment of Enterobius vermicularis in highly endemic population, total 82 children in two orphanage institutes were divided into 4 groups and treated with placebo, 5 mg/kg of pyrvinium pamoate, 100 mg of mebendazole and 10 mg/kg of pyrantel pamoate respectively. Total 4 anal swabs were taken from each child before treatment and the even distributions of positive rate and consecutive results between groups were considered. Follow-up swabs were taken 8 times up to the 40th day after treatment. After remarkable and significant reduction of positive rates up to 19-27th day after treatment in respective groups, the remarkable egg positive conversions were observed 3-4 weeks after treatment. The positive conversion was the earliest and the most remarkable in pyrantel-treated children and the slowest and the least remarkable in mebendazole-treated cases. Also found was that the figures of negative conversion were different with statistical significance between two categories of cases, consecutively positive and alternately positive cases of pre-treatment swabs. This means that the conventional indices of cure rate in E. vermicularis infection may be variable by the selection of subjected cases. Above results mean that the spectrum of susceptible pinworms according to the developmental stages are different between currently available drugs, and the ability to remove pinworms completely in certain developmental stage are also different between chemotherapeutics. These results suggest the need of interval chemotherapy of Enterobius vermicularis infection in heavily infected cases of in highly endemic population to achieve the complete eradication of whole range of pinworms in intestine.