Treatment
Schistosomiasis is readily treated using a single oral dose of the drug praziquantel annually. As with other major parasitic diseases, there is ongoing and extensive research into developing a schistosomiasis vaccine that will prevent the parasite from completing its life cycle in humans. In 2009, Eurogentec Biologics developed a vaccine against bilharziosis in partnership with INSERM and researchers from the Pasteur Institute.
The World Health Organization has developed guidelines for community treatment of schistosomiasis based on the impact the disease has on children in endemic villages:
- When a village reports more than 50 percent of children have blood in their urine, everyone in the village receives treatment.
- When 20 to 50 percent of children have bloody urine, only school-age children are treated.
- When less than 20 percent of children have symptoms, mass treatment is not implemented.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has recently funded an operational research program---the Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation (SCORE) to answer strategic questions about how to move forward with schistosomiasis control and elimination. The focus of SCORE is on development of tools and evaluation of strategies for use in mass drug administration campaigns.
Antimony has been used in the past to treat the disease. In low doses, this toxic metalloid bonds to sulfur atoms in enzymes used by the parasite and kills it without harming the host. This treatment is not referred to in present-day peer-review scholarship; praziquantel is universally used. Outside of the U.S., there is a drug available exclusively for treating Schistosoma mansoni (oxamniquine) and one exclusively for treating S.hematobium (metrifonate). While metrifonate has been discontinued for use by the British National Health Service, a Cochrane review found it equally effective in treating urinary schistosomiasis as the leading drug, praziquantel.
Mirazid, an Egyptian drug made from myrrh, was under investigation for oral treatment of the disease up until 2005. The efficacy of praziquantel was proven to be about 8 times than that of Mirazid and therefore Mirazid was not recommended as a suitable agent to control schistosomiasis.
Read more about this topic: Schistosomiasis
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