[Treatment of 700 cases of bilharziasis with the new drugs oxamniquine, oltipraz, praziquantel].

The authors study the results of a treatment of 700 cases of bilharziasis seen in Paris and in two foci in Togo, by oxamniquine, oltipraz or praziquantel. The three drugs are well tolerated; only a few mild side-effects were reported such as discomfort, nausea, headaches (two cases of acrodynia with oltipraz ). The three drugs are very efficacious in the case of schistosomiasis mansoni (85,5% success rate with oxamniquine, 92,9% with praziquantel, from 76,5 to 92% with oltipraz depending on the different strains) at day 180. As far as schistosomiasis haematobium is concerned, oltipraz and praziquantel have a 87,5% success rate with oltipraz and 80% with praziquantel; however, in the case of oltipraz , it is necessary to increase the dose. The action of praziquantel seems to be slower on Schistosoma haematobium than on S. mansoni. By the study of the evolution of antibodies, the fast action of praziquantel was noticed, explaining the peak of serological titers and of eosinophilia as early as day 10 after treatment; in the case of oltipraz , the apparition of this peak is only recorded at the 30th day. The slower effect of oltipraz on worms implicates not to judge its efficacy by too early controls.