Pharmacotherapy for imported parasitic diseases with drugs reserved by the government

Weon-Gyu Kho

doi:10.5124/jkma.2012.55.1.49

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 55(1); 2012 > Article

Kho: Pharmacotherapy for imported parasitic diseases with drugs reserved by the government

Pharmacotherapeutics

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2012; 55(1): 49-55.

Published online: January 11, 2012

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2012.55.1.49

Pharmacotherapy for imported parasitic diseases with drugs reserved by the government

Weon-Gyu Kho, MD^1,²

¹Department of Parasitology, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.

²Paik Institute for Clinical Research, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.

Corresponding author: Weon-Gyu Kho, wgkho@inje.ac.kr

Received November 28, 2011 Accepted December 10, 2011

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Parasitic diseases are widely distributed throughout the world. Recently, travel abroad and migration from abroad are increasing in Korea. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately control imported parasitic disease. The drugs for the treatment of the parasitic diseases that can be imported from abroad are reserved by the government. To guide proper treatment of parasitic diseases, recommended chemotherapy focused on these reserved drugs has been introduced. The diseases reviewed in this article include malaria, babesiosis, toxoplasmosis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness, filariasis, angiostrongyliasis, and fascioliasis. Because most of the parasitic diseases produce severe illness or fatal results, rapid and accurate diagnosis is important and following fully the recommended therapy is needed. The recommended drug therapy changes from time to time due to various factors, so always recognizing and applying the latest therapy and is very important.

Imported parasitic diseases; Drug therapy; Reserved drug

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Table 1

Medicines reserved by the government for the treatment of imported parasitic diseases, 2011

IV, intravenous; IM, intramuscular.

Table 2

Summary of initial parenteral treatment of severe malaria [4]

From World Health Organization. Guidelines for the treatment of malaria. 2nd ed. Geneva: WHO Press; 2010 [4].

IV, intravenous; IM, intramuscular.

Table 3

Summary of follow-on treatment of severe malaria

From World Health Organization. Guidelines for the treatment of malaria. 2nd ed. Geneva: WHO Press; 2010 [4].