Ascaricides

Ascaris lumbricoides, a fleshy, cylindrical roundworm, is the largest nematode to colonise the human gut.

The disease is acquired by ingesting eggs that are passed in human faeces and mature in the soil. The diagnosis can be made in most cases by finding characteristic eggs in a stool sample and it is treated with oral anthelmintic agents.

First-line treatments include albendazole, mebendazole, or ivermectin. All three drugs are equally effective. (1)

None of the anthelmintics are licensed for use in pregnancy - if a woman in her first trimester of pregnancy is found to have ascariasis, she must wait until the second trimester to receive treatment. The WHO recommends the use of albendazole or mebendazole in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. (2)

Reference

1. Conterno LO, Turchi MD, Corrêa I, et al. Anthelmintic drugs for treating ascariasis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Apr 14;4:CD010599.
2. World Health Organization. Preventive chemotherapy to control soil-transmitted helminth infections in at-risk population groups. September 2017 [internet publication].