Effect of Drugs during Earliest Stages of Experimental Schistosomiasis Mansoni in Mice

Abstract

In connection with work previously reported from this Laboratory on the chemotherapy of schistosomiasis in experimentally infected mice, the suggestion was made by Dr. H. E. Meleney of this University that it might be well to do some screening work testing the effect of drugs administered to mice during a short period of time immediately following the exposure of these mice to infection. The aim of such experiments would be to find drugs to prevent the development of the disease by stopping the development of the larval worms to adults. Since the war was still in progress at the time these experiments were begun the possibility of immediate application of any findings to actual field conditions was sufficient warrant for such an investigation. It takes about a week after the penetration of the cercariae into the body of their definitive host before they begin to collect in the liver in any considerable numbers.