TREATMENT OF FILARIASIS BANCROFTI WITH 1-DIETHYLCARBAMYL-4-METHYLPIPERAZINE HYDROCHLORIDE ("HETRAZAN")

Abstract

The attempts to eradicate infections with Wuchereria bancrofti by means of chemotherapeutic agents have been greatly intensified during the last five years. The National Research Council listed over one hundred and twenty compounds which by 1945 had been given clinical trial in human filariasis.¹Of all drugs used, only the antimony compounds have appeared to have beneficial effects. Of these, the pentavalent antimonial ethylstibamine has had the best antagonistic action on the filariae.²Antimony compounds apparently act on the adult filariae, the circulating embryos disappearing gradually from the blood stream. The complete disappearance of the embryos takes place from a few months, in some patients, to longer periods of time in others. A drug as yet had to be found which possessed a more marked and rapid effect on the microfilariae and the adult worms. Hewitt³and his co-workers have recently reported on the marked filaricidal action