Treatment of intestinal capillariasis with thiabendazole, bithionol, and bephenium.

Abstract Treatment of intestinal capillariasis, a newly recognized disease in man, was evaluated in 26 patients during an epidemic in the Philippines. Before this study, no effective treatment was available and the case mortality rate was high. Capillaria philippinensis parasites were eliminated from all 26 patients treated with thiabendazole, and 24 had dramatic clinical improvement. Long-term therapy with thiabendazole sharply decreased the case mortality rate, from 35% to less than 4%. The relapse rate that used to be high among patients treated less than 1 week was prevented by daily administration of the drug for 3 or 4 weeks. Over 75% of the patients observed for 18 months remained asymptomatic after using thiabendazole.