Anthelminthic treatment during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of infantile eczema: randomised-controlled trial results.

Background: Allergy is commoner in developed than in developing countries. Chronic worm infections show inverse associations with allergy, and prenatal exposures may be critical to allergy risk.

Objective: To determine whether anthelminthic treatment during pregnancy increases the risk of allergy in infancy.

Effect of praziquantel treatment during pregnancy on cytokine responses to schistosome antigens: results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Praziquantel treatment of schistosomiasis boosts antischistosome responses, with type 2 helper T cell bias that may contribute to immunologically mediated killing and to protection against reinfection. Praziquantel treatment during pregnancy was recommended in 2002, but the immunological effects of the treatment had not been investigated.

Methods: A cohort of 387 Schistosoma mansoni-infected women were recruited from a larger trial of deworming during pregnancy.