Therapeutic results in opisthorchiasis with praziquantel in a reinfection-free environment in France.

108 patients coming to France from Southeast Asia were treated with praziquantel (2-cyclohexylcarbonyl-1,2,3,6,7,11b-hexahydro-4H-pyrazino[2,1-a] isoquinolin-4-one, EMBAY 8440, Biltricide) for opisthorchiasis. All patients, 31 children and 77 adults, were examined at the Department of Parasitic Diseases 30 to 90 days after arrival in France. They came from Laos (79 cases), Viet Nam (4 cases) and Cambodia (25 cases), generally via Thailand. 6 heavy (10 000-19 999 eggs per gram of faeces, EPG), 23 moderate (1000-9999 EPG) and 79 light infections (1-999 EPG) were detected. Praziquantel was given at a dose of 25 mg/kg body weight, three times on a single day at intervals of 4 h. The biological tolerability was excellent without any variation of the biological norm values (47 parameters). Clinical tolerability was perfect in 48 patients and pretty good in the 60 remaining cases. We only observed, for one or two days, lassitude, headache, drowsiness, nausea, epigastric pain or arthralgia-myalgia always of weak or moderate intensity. The therapeutic efficacy is remarkable with 100% cure in all patients who were followed-up for 90 days. All earlier controls (7th, 20th, 40th days) were always negative except for one child with a light infection still weakly positive at the 7th, 20th and 40th day controls but negative, too, after 90 days.