User talk:LisaMarie B87

Hi. At 23:58 on 9 February 2015‎, you changed the list of organisms on the Helminthic Therapy page that was previously referred to as “organisms currently being used in treatment” to “organisms currently being investigated for their use as treatment”, and you added to this latter list, Ascaris lumbricoides, Strongyloides stercoralis, Enterobius vermicularis and Hymenolepis nana, citing the Correale et al papers of 2007 and 2011.

However, the four organisms you added are not in fact being investigated currently for their use in treatment. Correale et al merely noted that these organisms had a therapeutic effect, but, as far as I’m aware, no one is currently actively investigating these particular organisms for use in therapy.

The text you amended was correct in that there are currently only four organisms being used in treatment (by members of the public - currently estimated to be approximately 8,000 in number - who purchase these via the internet for the purpose of self infection): Trichuris suis, Necator americanus, Trichuris trichiura and Hymenolepis diminuta, but only the first three of these are being investigated as therapeutic organisms, and only the first two are being investigated in clinical trials. Trichuris trichiura has, as far as I’m aware, so far only been the subject of case studies rather than full clinical trials, e.g., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21123809

The four additional organisms that you added (Ascaris lumbricoides, Strongyloides stercoralis, Enterobius vermicularis and Hymenolepis nana) do not meet the general ideal characteristics for a therapeutic helminth that are listed under Research on this page, and, for this reason, are unlikely to be used, or investigated, as therapeutic organisms.

So, perhaps there is a need for two lists, one for organisms currently being used in self treatment (Trichuris suis, Necator americanus, Trichuris trichiura and Hymenolepis diminuta), and a second for organisms currently being formally investigated for their use as treatment - Trichuris suis, Necator americanus, and possibly Trichuris trichiura, if you count case studies as active investigation.

Thank you for your recent extensive work on this page! I've posted the details above as User Talk rather than making new edits so that we can perhaps reach agreement before further edits are made, and because I find editing Wikipedia rather a challenge!

Helminthophile (talk) 00:06, 30 March 2015 (UTC)