Mirazid alone or combined with Paromomycin in treating cryptosporidiosis parvum in immunocompetent hospitalized patients.

: Sixty cryptosporidiosis patients from Mansoura University Hospitals, 36 males and 24 females, with age from few months to ten years (mean age 6.1) were divided into three cross-matched groups of 20 patients each. All patients received the glutamine-based oral rehydration solution with 111 mmol/l glutamine, 20 mg zinc acetate once a day and vitamin A supplementation (200,000 IU) once a day for 2 weeks. For cryptosporidiosis treatment, G1 received Mirazid (10 mg/kg for 2 weeks), G2 received Paromomycin (500 mg qid for 2 weeks), and G3 received a combination of Mirazid (10 mg/kg) and Paromomycin (500 mg) for two weeks. The result was assessed according to the scales: 0 = no improvement, 1 = symptoms began improvement (reduction of diarrhea frequency and stool volume, less abdominal pain, less nausea & vomiting), 2 = diarrhea eradication, 3 = weight gain, 4 = oocyst counts reduction, 5 = reduction in diarrhea and oocyst counts, 6 = eradication of diarrhea and oocysts. G3 showed significantly higher difference than G1 & G2 in the 1st week (p = .036, 0.025 respectively), no significant difference in 2nd week, a significantly higher difference than in G1 (0.003), & G2 (0.006) in 3rd week, and a significantly higher difference than G1 (0.014), & G2 (0.01) in 4th week, but without significant differences in oocyst shedding in the 3 groups.