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Albany Med Joins Nationwide Study of Pig Parasite Eggs as Potential Treatment for Crohn’s Disease

Albany Medical Center is joining a multi-center trial, testing the eggs of the pig parasite whipworm as a potential treatment for Crohn’s disease. 

Crohn's is a severe and debilitating form of inflammatory bowel disease.   For the trial, Crohn’s patients will ingest 7500 microscopic parasite eggs in a tablespoonful of salt water (called TSO suspension) every two weeks for 12 weeks. Another group will be given a placebo. In people, this special form of the parasite egg survives only about two weeks and does not cause infection.

A doctor explained that Crohn’soccurs mostly in hygienic Western industrialized countries and are very rare in developing countries where people are more likely to have been exposed to intestinal parasites during childhood.  TSO medication meets FDA purity criteria of a pharmaceutical product.

Several clinical studies have shown that ingestion of live TSO has been well tolerated in humans, including a study conducted at the University of Iowa, supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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