SOVIET HYDATIDS DRUG

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29235, 20 June 1960, Page 16

SOVIET HYDATIDS DRUG

Lower Rate Of Success "The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, June 19. Russia had not yet produced a drug which would kill the hydatid parasite within a dog, said Dr. N. C. Begg, of Dunedin. He gave this opinion after a letter received by the Mayor of Auckland (Mr D. M. Robinson) from the AllUnion Institute of Helminthology, Moscow, was read to him. In January, Mr Robinson wrote to the Russian Legation in Wellington seeking information about a new drug used in the treatment of dogs for hydatids. The reply was technical and was summarised by Dr. Begg, a leading advocate for hydatids control in New Zealand.

“The feeling in Russia apparently is that dosing a dog every 45 days will eliminate all parasites in its intestines,” said Dr. Begg. “If dogs were dosed every 45 days there would be no worms to produce eggs and the worm must die out.

“The preparation made from the root of the male fern and used in Russia is quoted as being from 77.8 per cent, to 100 per cent, effective in a single treatment and from 83.4 per cent, to 100 per cent effective after repeated treatments. “These percentages do not reach the degree of success achieved by Dr. Bantham, of the original hydatid research unit, with arecolins,” said Dr. Begg.

“It would also be fair to say that, because none of these drugs completely clear the dog of infestation in one dose, it is necessary to have either very frequent dosing or to stop the dog from eating raw offal.”