Efficacy of a single dose of secnidazole in the treatment of acute and chronic amoebiasis.

An open study was carried out to determine the clinical efficacy of secnidazole in the treatment of acute and chronic cases of amoebiasis. Patients were given 2 g of secnidazole in a single dose or in two divided doses within a 4 h interval. Details were recorded daily by patients of complaints such as fever, lumbar pain, LBM, dizziness, body weakness, bloody mucoid stools, epigastric pains and other symptoms, before and after treatment. Results were analysed for 45 chronic and five acute cases and showed clinical cure of 98% in chronic and 80% in acute cases. The acute group showed a non-significant change (P greater than 0.05) which could be attributed to the small sample size. The treatment regimen proved effective for the eradication of E. histolytica and only two (4%) remained positive after treatment out of the 50 patients initially positive.