“A new cure for whipworm infections, moxidectin-albendazole. In a phase 3 trial of around 270 children in Tanzania, a single combination of moxidectin and albendazole cured 69% of whipworm infections, meaning they no longer had detectable worm eggs in their stool, compared to 16% with albendazole alone,” reports The Doomslayer.
The Lancet explains:
Infection with the soil-transmitted helminth Trichuris trichiura affects up to 300 million people globally, with children in rural areas in less economically developed countries being most at risk. If untreated, infection compromises physical and cognitive development and leads to long-lasting morbidity. We assessed whether moxidectin co-administered with albendazole is superior to the recommended albendazole monotherapy in treating trichuriasis in school-aged children….
This…phase 3 trial took place between May 14 and Aug 5, 2024, in the Piki administrative district primary school in the Wete district, Pemba Island, Tanzania. Children aged between 6 and 11 years were screened for the presence of T trichiura eggs in their stool via quadruplicate Kato–Katz thick smears….For the 213 participants…we observed a cure rate of 69%…in the moxidectin–albendazole group, which was significantly higher than the cure rate of 16%…in the albendazole group…The cure rate in the placebo group was 12%…The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were abdominal pain [4% with moxidectin–albendazole, 3% with albendazole, and 3% with placebo]…all mild and transient.
Parasites can take years for countries to eradicate. It took nearly 40 years for the world to largely eradicate Guinea worms, nasty parasites that caused tens of millions of people to scream with unbearable pain. But by 2023, Guinea worms had been eradicated in at least 17 countries, and “no guinea worm was reported” in 2024.
Guinea worms used to inflict burning pain on millions of people in Africa and South Asia every year. They would grow up to 3 feet long while living inside a person’s body, then burst out of their foot or other sensitive areas of their anatomy, such as their eyeball or their penis.
“With a guinea worm infection, you get a gross open wound from which the worm emerges over a period of weeks to months with extreme painfulness. There were millions of cases in the 80s, and now there are none. Incredible human progress.”
“It’s possible that the worm is evolutionarily adapted to cause prolonged pain and suffering. Since this will increase the chance that the host will put their foot in the water to soothe the pain, and that can help the worm get to the next stage in its life cycle,” notes a scientist.
“When The Carter Center began leading the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in at least 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, that number has been reduced by more than 99.99%.”
