RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To assess the benefits and harms of artemisinin-type compounds for preventing schistosomiasis. METHOD: The quality of included randomised controlled trials with the people at risk of contacting schistosomiasis were evaluated and Meta-analysis was conducted. RESULTS: We found ten randomised controlled trials relating to our question. Of them, four trials were multi-centre studies, others were single centre studies. Numbers of participants in the trials ranged from 318 to 5,098, total 12,829. The total OR of 0.11 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.21) indicated that those who were administrated artemisinin-type compounds were significantly less infected with Schistosoma japonica than those who were administrated placebo. CONCLUSION: Artemisinin-type compounds are effective drug for preventing Schistosomiasis japonica infection. Fifteen days interval schemes of artesunate and artemether be considered preferable to seven days interval scheme and were associated with very few side effects. More high quality controlled trials are required for assessing which scheme is the better. These studies should be large.