| dc.description.abstract | The effect of eight half-yearly treatment rounds with diethylcarbamazine
(DEC; 6 mg/kg bodyweight) on Wuchereria bancrofti-specific circulating
filarial antigen (CFA), a marker of adult worm infection, was followed in 79 individuals
who were CFA-positive before start of treatment. Half of these were also
microfilariae (mf)-positive. Microfilaraemia decreased rapidly after onset of treatment
and became undetectable after four treatments. Circulating antigenaemia
also decreased progressively, but at a much slower rate. After two, four and eight
treatment rounds, the mean CFA intensity was reduced by 81, 94 and 98%, and the
prevalence of CFA positivity was 85, 66 and 57%, compared with pre-treatment,
respectively. CFA clearance rates were negatively related to pre-treatment CFA intensities,
and were higher among pre-treatment mf-negative individuals than among
pre-treatment mf-positive individuals. Even among patients who had pre-treatment
CFA intensities above the upper measuring level (32 000 antigen units), and who
continued to have intensities above this level after treatment, a decrease in posttreatment
CFA intensities was obvious from a continuous decrease in ELISA optical | en |
