How is giardiasis treated?

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If you're diagnosed with giardiasis, your doctor will prescribe an antibiotic for you to take orally. Tindamax® is effective for treating giardiasis.

  • Tindamax® is recommended as one of the drugs of choice for the treatment of giardiasis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  • Tindamax® is the only single-dose oral therapy approved to treat giardiasis.
  • Single-dose Tindamax® for giardiasis has demonstrated cure rates of 80 to 100 percent.

Simple dosing with high cure rates

The recommended Tindamax® dosing for giardiasis is a single 2-gram dose for adults and a single dose of 50 mg/kg (up to 2 grams) for children.

As shown in Figure 1, a summary of results from multiple studies, the average giardiasis cure rate for a single dose of tinidazole is 90% in both adults and children.

Results of treatment studies for GI infections

Chart summarizing results from multiple studies on the efficacy of Tindamax<sup class='reg'>®</sup> in GI-related infections. Average giardiasis cure rate was 90% for a single dose of 2 g in adults and 50 mg/kg (up to 2 g) in children.

† 8 randomized, comparative studies.2-8 Cure rates ranged from 80%-100%.

‡ 4 randomized, comparative studies.2,9-11 Cure rates ranged from 86%-93%.

§ 7 randomized, comparative studies;2,12-17 4 studies utilized at least 3 days of tinidazole. Cure rates ranged from 81%-100%.

Figure 1

  1. Bakshi JS, Ghiara JM, Nanivadekar AS. How does tinidazole compare with metronidazole? A summary report of Indian trials in amoebiasis and giardiasis. Drugs. 1978;15 Suppl 1:33-42.
  2. Jokipii L, Jokipii AM. Single-dose metronidazole and tinidazole as therapy for giardiasis: success rates, side effects and drug absorption and elimination. J Infect Dis. 1979 Dec;140(6):984-8.
  3. Kyrönseppä H, Pettersson T. Treatment of giardiasis: relative efficacy of metronidazole as compared with tinidazole. Scand J Infect Dis. 1981;13(4):311-2.
  4. Gazder AJ, Banerjee M. Single-dose treatment of giardiasis in children: a comparison of tinidazole and metronidazole. Curr Med Res Opin. 1977;5(2):164-8.
  5. Nigam P, Kapoor KK, Kumar A, Sarkari NB, Gupta AK. Clinical profile of giardiasis and comparison of its therapeutic response to metronidazole and tinidazole. J Assoc Physicians India. 1991 Aug;39(8):613-5.
  6. Krishnamurthy KA, Saradhambal V. Single dose therapy of giardiasis: A comparative study of tinidazole and metronidazole in pediatric patients. Indian Pediatr. 1978 Jan;15(1):51-6.
  7. Speelman P. Single-dose tinidazole for the treatment of giardiasis. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1985 Feb;27(2):227-9.
  8. Swami B, Lavakusulu D, Devi CS. Tinidazole and metronidazole in the treatment of intestinal amebiasis. Cur Med Res Opin. 1977;5(2):152-6.
  9. Singh G, Kumar S. Short course of single daily dosage treatment with tinidazole and metronidazole in intestinal amebiasis: a comparative study. Cur Med Res Opin. 1977;5(2):157-60.
  10. Misra NP, Gupta RC. A comparison of short course single daily dosage therapy of tinidazole with metronidazole in intestinal amoebiasis. J Int Med Res. 1977;5(6):434-7.
  11. Kundu SC, Sen A, Bhattacherjee TD, Dasgupta DP, Majumdar S, Moorkerjee PK, Mukerjee AB. Comparative evaluation of tinidazole and metronidazole in the treatment of amoebic liver abscess. J Ind Med Assoc. 1977 Sep 16;69(6):127-9.
  12. Islam N, Hasan K. Tinidazole and metronidazole in hepatic amoebiasis. Drugs. 1978;15 Suppl 1:26-9.
  13. Khokhani RC, Garud AD, Deodhar KP, Sureka SB, Kulkarni M, Damle VB. Comparative study of tinidazole and metronidazole in amoebic liver abscess. Curr Med Res Opin. 1977;5(2):161-3.
  14. Mathur SN, Itigi A, Krishnaveni, Rai V. Tinidazole and metronidazole in the treatment of amoebic liver abscess. J Int Med Res. 1977;5(6):429-33.
  15. Simjee AE, Gathiram V, Jackson TF, Khan BF. A comparative trial of metronidazole v. tinidazole in the treatment of amoebic liver abscess. S Afr Med J. 1985 Dec 21;68(13):923-4.
  16. Mendis S, Dharmasena BD, Jayatissa SK. Comparison of tinidazole with metronidazole in the treatment of hepatic amoebiasis: a controlled double blind study. Ceylon Med J. 1984 Jun;29(2):97-100.

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