Schistosomiasis treatment using praziquantel is efficacious in reduction of morbidity but fails to prevent reinfection.Artemether which anti malarial drug exhibits the highest activity against juvenile stages of the parasites , while adult worms are significantly less susceptible .Golden hamsters infected with S.haematobium were given artemether by a single intramuscular dose of 50 mg/kg at premature stage(one month) and mature stage(3.5 months) post infection (p.i.) , also they were given praziquantel by a single oral dose of 300 mg/kg at the same times then combination of both drugs was given by the same doses and at the same time.Worm burden,oogram pattern changes ,tissue egg load and histopathological changes (granuloma sectional area and numerical density with study of liver, intestine and urinary bladder sections)were the parameters of experiment assessment.Artemether achieved significant therapeutic effect when given at the premature stage of infection while praziquantel was significantly higher when given at the mature stage of infection.Combined treatment with both drugs showed higher significant therapeutic effect on hamsters than each drug alone when given at both premature and mature stages |
