The impact of baseline faecal egg counts on the efficacy of single-dose albendazole against Trichuris trichiura.

There is considerable variation in the efficacy of single-dose albendazole (400mg) against Trichuris trichiura across human trials. Factors contributing to this variation have not yet been identified. We assessed the impact of mean baseline faecal egg counts (FEC) on the efficacy of single-dose albendazole against T. trichiura in five previously conducted trials. Our results suggest that efficacy measured by reduction in mean FECs decreased significantly (p<0.0001) when mean baseline FECs increased, highlighting that this parameter should be considered as an important confounding factor for drug efficacy.