Treatment of patients with refractory giardiasis.

Giardia lamblia is one of the most common parasitic infections. Although standard treatments are usually curative, some immunocompromised patients, including patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as well as healthy patients, have giardiasis that is refractory to recommended regimens. We report our experience with 6 patients with giardiasis, for whom therapy with a combination of quinacrine and metronidazole resulted in cures for 5 of the 6 patients.