Hydatid Disease: Current Status of Chemotherapy and Drug Delivery Systems

ELISSONDO M.; BERMUDEZ J.; ULLIO GAMBOA G.; PENSEL P.; CID A.; JUAREZ M.; ALLEMANDI D.; PALMA S.

Current Drug Therapy

Betham Science

Año: 2013 vol. 8 p. 197 - 197

2212-3903

uman echinococcosis or hydatid disease still causes serious health problems with a worldwide geographical distribution. This parasitic infection is a chronic, complex, and still neglected disease. Currently four treatment modalities are in use: surgery, PAIR (puncture, aspiration, injection of protoscolicidal agent, reaspiration), chemotherapy and a ?watch and wait? approach for inactive, clinically silent cysts. Over the past 30 years, chemotherapy with benzimidazoles (BZ), like albendazole and mebendazole, has been used increasingly to treat this pathology. Unfortunately, 20%?40% of the cases do not respond favorably to such chemotherapy and these drugs produce stabilization, rather than cure in the majority of patients. However, the overall efficacy of BZ has been overstated in the past. With regard to these difficulties, novel therapeutical tools are needed to optimize treatment of human echinococcosis. On the one hand, a number of compounds have been inves