Efficacy of albendazole against Strongyloides ratti and S. stercoralis in vitro, in mice, and in normal and immunosuppressed dogs.

In view of conflicting clinical reports, the effects of albendazole on Strongyloides were examined in vitro and in experimentally-infected animals. Albendazole inhibited the hatching and moulting of S. ratti eggs and larvae and prevented the development in vitro of S. stercoralis first-stage larvae. Pre-exposure to the drug did not impair the infectivity of either S. ratti or S. stercoralis third-stage larvae. Albendazole had a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on S. ratti migrating larvae in mice when measured in terms of the numbers of larvae recovered from the skin or lungs or the subsequent development of a patent infection. Likewise, killing of adult S. ratti in the gut and eradication of S. stercoralis third-stage larvae from the muscles of mice were dose-dependent. Albendazole in a dose of 100 mg twice daily for three days given at the time of infection with S. stercoralis of immunocompetent dogs prevented completely the subsequent development of patent infection. When the drug was given in the same dosage to immunosuppressed dogs with patent infections, the larvae disappeared from the stools transiently; when the animals were killed seven weeks after treatment, small numbers of adult worms and rhabditiform larvae were found in the gut. It is concluded that albendazole may be effective treatment for strongyloidiasis if it is given in sufficiently large doses.