Mebendazole is the drug of choice for the treatment of Trichuris trichuria (whipworm), Enterobius vermicularis (horse pinworm, pinworm), Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm), as well as hookworm Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus. For all these helminth mebendazole has success rates of at least 90 to 95%.

Mebendazole is an appropriately named broad spectrum antihelmintic agent; only Clonorchis sinensis is totally resistant. Some parasites (e.g. filaries, Guinea worm, Strongyloides stercoralis) cannot always be eradicated.

The effect of mebendazole on intestinal tapeworms is not sufficiently documented. Long-term mebendazole therapy may represent a supplement or an alternative to surgery for Echinococcosis: Echinococcus granulosus can be eradicated and Echinococcus multilocularis can at least be inhibited in growth. (For this inidication, albendazole, not available on the Swiss market, is probably even more effective.) High doses of mebendazole (here also as an alternative to albendazole) are also effective against trichinosis (Trichinella spiralis).

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