Table 2.
Target population | Disease burden | Potential treatment sites | Potential treatment strategies | Current applicability: nitazoxanide |
Young children aged 0–24 months | 7.5 million cases with moderate-to-severe diarrhoea,2 133 000 deaths and 8.2M DALYs annually in LMICs7 | Primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in LMICs | Diagnosis-based treatment | Not approved in children under 12 months, only ~30% efficacy in malnourished9 |
Empiric treatment in high-risk populations where diagnostic tools are not available | Insufficient evidence and guidelines | |||
Community based treatment | Mass drug administration in seasons with high prevalence | Insufficient evidence and guidelines | ||
Malnourished children | Estimated 50 million wasted children globally.45 Recent studies indicate 10%–20% prevalence of cryptosporidiosis in children with acute malnourishment.9 46–48 | Primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in LMICs. Malnutrition care centres in clinics and hospitals |
Diagnosis-based treatment | Poorly effective (~30% efficacious)9 |
Empiric treatment in high-risk populations where diagnostic tools are not available | Insufficient evidence and guidelines. Nitazoxanide poorly effective9 | |||
Immunocompromised patients | Estimates range from 5% to 50% of PLWHA and up to 30% of solid organ transplant recipients.49–53 | Primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in LMICs. HIV/AIDS treatment programmes. Transplant centres in any global setting |
Diagnosis-based treatment | Poorly or non-effective for PLWHA9 43 54 |
Empiric treatment in high-risk populations where diagnostic tools are not available | Insufficient evidence and guidelines Poorly or non-effective for PLWHA9 43 54 |
Adapted from Ashigbie et al. 42
DALYs, disability-adjusted life years lost; LMICs, low-income and middle-income countries; PLWHA, people living with HIV/AIDS.