Drugs for treating giardiasis

Drugs for treating giardiasis

Carlos E Granados1,*, Ludovic Reveiz2, Luis G Uribe3, Claudia P Criollo4

1 Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Medicina, Bogota D.C., Colombia
2 Health Systems Based on Primary Health Care (HSS), Pan American Health Organization, Research Promotion and Development Team, Washington DC, USA
3 Cardio-Infantil Fundacion, Department of Internal Medicine, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota D. C., Colombia
4 Universidad del Valle, Faculty of Medicine, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Drugs for treating giardiasis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, Issue 12. Art. No.: CD007787.

To read the full review please follow this link: DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007787.pub2.

Giardiasis is an infection of the small intestine caused by a microscopic organism called Giardia lamblia. The infection is passed from person to person by ingesting faecally contaminated water or food. Symptoms frequently include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, flatulence, bloating, vomiting, and weight loss. In this review, we assess alternatives to the most commonly used treatment for giardiasis; metronidazole given orally for five or more days.

We identified 19 trials involving 1817 participants, of which 1441 were children. Most trials had a small number of participants and were at high risk of bias. Albendazole is probably of similar effectiveness to metronidazole, probably has fewer side effects, and has the advantage of a simplified regimen. Large, high quality trials, assessing clinical outcomes are required to assess further alternatives.