A new pill being developed to treat intestinal worms has shown promising results in trials and could help eradicate the parasitic infection that affects around 1.5 billion people worldwide, researchers say.
The mango-flavored pill is a combination of two existing anti-parasitic drugs that, when used together, appear to be more effective in getting rid of worms.
These worms are contracted through contact with food or water that has been contaminated with soil contaminated with worm eggs, and the infections cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms, malnutrition, and anemia.
Researchers say the pill could help overcome future problems with drug resistance and better manage the disease on a large scale.
Parasites, also known as soil-transmitted helminths (STH), include roundworms and hookworms and are endemic in many developing countries where hygiene levels are low.
Many of those affected are children and there is no preventive treatment other than better sanitation.
According to a study called “ALIVE”published in the Lancet, this new pill could help the most vulnerable countries achieve the goals it has set World Health Organization to eliminate disease.
It would be taken as a fixed dose of one tablet or three tablets over consecutive days.
Researchers from eight European and African institutions say it would be a simple way to cure large numbers of people in mass treatment programs.
“It is easy to apply because it is a single tablet,” says the project manager, prof. Jose Muñoz.
“Also, we hope that the combination of two drugs with different mechanisms of action will reduce the risk of parasites becoming drug-resistant,” says Professor Muñoz.
After a person becomes infected, the parasites take root in the digestive tract of humans.
While the drug albendazole is good at treating some types of STH, it appears to be becoming less effective against some others.
During a clinical trial involving 1,001 children aged 5 to 18 in Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique, it was shown to be more effective against several types of infections when combined with the drug ivermectin.
However, the researchers said the results are inconclusive about how well it treats the worm.
Prof. Hany Elsheikha, an expert in parasitology at the University of Nottingham, said the pill could be a “significant improvement over other treatments” and could be used against more parasites.
“There are some challenges with existing drugs … so this could be a big, big addition.”
However, he said that while the study was “promising”, there were “some gaps”.
“We don’t know if the results would be the same for adults, mature people, younger children, people in other parts of the world.”
The test results have been submitted to regulators in Europe and Africa, and decisions are expected in early 2025.
Participants are now being recruited to take part in a further trial involving 20,000 people in Kenya and Ghana.
dr. Stella Kepha, a researcher at the Kenya Institute of Medical Research who worked on the study, said the pill had “huge potential to improve the health of affected communities” but that there was still “work to be done” to make the treatment widely available.
