The
efficacy of oral
praziquantel in the
treatment of
schistosomiasis has been considered low by most
public health institutions. In this
paper, we compared the
efficacy of two dosages of
praziquantel (80 mg/kg vs. 50 mg/kg) in
patients with chronic
schistosomiasis mansoni. Two hundred eighty-eight
patients with
schistosomiasis from a
community in
Brazil were randomly divided into two groups 145
patients (Group 1) received 80 mg/kg
body weight of oral
praziquantel divided in two equal doses with 1 h interval and 143
patients (Group 2) received 50 mg/kg
body weight of oral
praziquantel. To keep the study masked,
patients in Group 2 received placebo 1 h after the first
dose. All
patients were subjected to clinical and ultrasonographic examination.
Cure assessment was performed by repeating two stool examinations, by a quantitative
method, at 30, 90 and 180 days
after treatment. The
morbidity of
schistosomiasis was low, with a few cases of
light periportal thickening and 16 cases of mild
splenomegaly. The
cure rates were 89.7 percent for Group 1 and 83.9 percent for Group 2. There was no difference in the
efficacy of both
therapeutic dosages of
praziquantel assayed. The adverse reactions were more frequent with higher
dosage.