Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Sep;2(3):181-187.
doi: 10.1007/s40475-015-0056-9. Epub 2015 Aug 1.

Treatment of Cryptosporidium: What We Know, Gaps, and the Way Forward

Hayley Sparks  1 , Gayatri Nair  1 , Alejandro Castellanos-Gonzalez  1 , A Clinton White Jr  1
Affiliations

Treatment of Cryptosporidium: What We Know, Gaps, and the Way Forward

Hayley Sparks et al. Curr Trop Med Rep. 2015 Sep.

Abstract

Cryptosporidiosis is increasingly recognized as an important global health concern. While initially reported in immunocompromised such as AIDS patients, cryptosporidiosis has now been documented as a major cause of childhood diarrhea and an important factor in childhood malnutrition. Currently, nitazoxanide is the only proven anti-parasitic treatment for Cryptosporidium infections. However, it is not effective in severely immunocompromised patients and there is limited data in infants. Immune reconstitution or decreased immunosuppression is critical to therapy in AIDS and transplant patients. This limitation of treatment options presents a major public health challenge given the important burden of disease. Repurposing of drugs developed for other indications and development of inhibitors for novel targets offer hope for improved therapies, but none have advanced to clinical studies.

Keywords: Cryptosporidium; Cryptosporidium hominis; Cryptosporidium parvum; cryptosporidiosis; nitazoxanide; paromomycin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines: Conflict of Interest: Hayley Sparks, Gayatri Nair, Alejandro Castellanos-Gonzalez, and declare that they have no conflict of interest. A. Clinton White Jr receives royalties from UpToDate and Harrison's Internal Medicine for chapters on a different subject.

References

    1. White AC., Jr . Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principals and Practices of Infectious Diseases. Elsevier Saunders; Philadelphia, PA: 2015. Cryptosporidiosis (Cryptosporidium Species) pp. 3173–3183.e6.
    1. Checkley W, et al. A review of the global burden, novel diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine targets for cryptosporidium. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2015;15(1):85–94. This state of the art review came from a meeting of most of the leaders in the field to define the state-of-the art, gaps, and future research directions regarding epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccination for cryptosporidiosis. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cama VA, et al. Cryptosporidium species and subtypes and clinical manifestations in children, Peru. Emerg Infect Dis. 2008;14(10):1567–74. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ryan U, Fayer R, Xiao L. Cryptosporidium species in humans and animals: current understanding and research needs. Parasitology. 2014;141(13):1667–85. - PubMed
    1. Chalmers RM, Katzer F. Looking for Cryptosporidium: the application of advances in detection and diagnosis. Trends Parasitol. 2013;29(5):237–51. - PMC - PubMed