Giardia lamblia is a flagellate protozoon which mostly lives as a commensal in the intestine. It sometimes invades the mucosa and causes diarrhoea requiring treatment.
DRUGS FOR GIARDIASIS
Giardia lamblia is a flagellate
protozoon which mostly lives as a
commensal in the intestine. It sometimes invades the mucosa and causes diarrhoea
requiring treatment. Many drugs useful in amoebiasis are also effective in giardiasis.
Metronidazole 200 mg TDS (children
15 mg/ kg/day) for 7 days or
2 g daily for 3 days or tinidazole 0.6
g daily for 7 days or 2 g single dose or
secnidazole 2 g single dose may be considered as the drugs of choice.
Nitazoxanide This prodrug of the PFOR enzyme inhibitor
tizoxanide has recently become available for the treatment of diarrhoea and
dysentery caused by Giardia lamblia, E.
histolytica, C. parvum. The dosage
schedule is convenient—500 mg
(children 7.5 mg/kg) twice daily for 3 days, efficacy high (80–90%) and
tolerability good.
Quiniodochlor
250 mg TDS for 7 days is a somewhat less
effective alternative.
Furazolidone
It is a nitrofuran compound active against many gram-negative
bacilli including Salmonella and Shigella, also Giardia and Trichomonas.
For giardiasis 100 mg TDS for 5–7 days is inferior to
metronidazole or tinidazole. It has also been used in bacterial enteritis, food
poisoning diarrhoeas and bacillary dysentery, but is not a first line treatment
for any of these.
Furazolidone is partly absorbed from intestines and excreted in
urine which turns orange— patients should be told about it. Side effects are
mild and infrequent—nausea, headache, dizziness.
FUROXONE 100 mg tab,
25 mg/5 ml susp.
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