About 80% of the planet's population is infected with various helminths. It often takes a long and unsuccessful treatment for a disease caused by parasites. Worms that can live in humans violate the integrity of the vascular walls, block the intestinal lumen, and damage internal organs. They produce toxic substances that enter the bloodstream.
What kind of worms do people have?
Helminths inhabit the intestines or parasitize by inhabiting any other organ. There are several varieties, the most common being nematodes. Their body is elongated, in cross section - round, shaped, narrowed at the ends. The infection is most common:
- roundworms, Trichinella, are deposited in the small intestine and other organs;
- whips that live in the colon and feed on blood and mucous membranes;
- pinworms that accumulate in the appendix and colon.
Pinworms are especially common in children when feces are analyzed for enterobiasis.
In addition to the above, there are more than a hundred rare parasites that inhabit different parts of the intestine. For example, such worms in humans as ankylosing spondylitis and roundworm are found in a thin segment, the thick part of which is often clogged with whips. People become hosts of adult tapeworms with a flat long body. Large bovine and porcine tapeworms, cestodes, echinococci settle in the intestines.
Influenza worms have a few millimeters (Siberian fluke) to 7 cm (fasciola) on the body of a mammal. Parasites spread to humans as a result of consuming raw fish, with uncooked water. Sometimes a worm infection occurs through the skin while swimming in lakes and rivers (schistosomiasis). Once settled, they can feel great in a variety of human organs for several years.
Infection methods
The ways different types of worms get inside are different. The main method of parasite infection is fecal-oral. It is associated with the penetration of helminths along with food and water. People simply swallow invisible organisms when they forget to wash their hands before eating. Worms in the feces can rarely be seen with the naked eye. But flies circling above the feces always lay their eggs. If an insect sits on a piece of food, then the chances of infection increase significantly.
Worms appear in humans after working without gloves with earth, sand. In the latter case, young children are more likely to suffer from parasites, for which sandstone is a favorite place to play. Helminths fall to the surface of the soil together with the feces of animals - cats, dogs, cattle, and are carried by flies. They penetrate the human body through unwashed hands, micro-injuries on the skin, insufficiently well-processed vegetables. Inhalation of street dust saturated with very tough larvae can also infect.
Another factor that contributes to the appearance of worms is the use of poor quality water. It is highly undesirable to swallow liquid while swimming in the sea, river or lake. It contains a huge amount of parasites in the feces of fish, waterfowl and domestic animals. Human consumption of raw fish, meat threatens to cause infection and parasites - cattle, swine tapeworm, broad tapeworm - will settle in the body. In medical manuals there are photographs of worms whose length reaches several meters.
Symptoms and signs of helminthic invasion
Becoming hosts of parasites, people start to lose weight quickly, feel exhausted, look pale. Mark the presence of worms:
- body aches;
- painful sensations in the joints;
- general weakness;
- loss of appetite;
- diarrhea or constipation;
- bouts of nausea.
But to make sure that helminths are present in the body, it is necessary to pass an examination. It will help identify stool worms or specific antibodies in the blood.
Symptoms are worse in the absence of timely treatment. Depending on which worms predominate in the body, the places of their accumulation will differ according to the signs of the disease. Bile stasis occurs when parasites block the ducts. The person feels heaviness and pain in the right hypochondrium, bitterness in the mouth. He is occasionally plagued by bouts of nausea and constipation.
Many worms excrete substances that irritate the intestinal walls - diarrhea occurs in which the stool is watery, foaming. In addition, the patient increased gas production, loud rumbling in the abdomen, navel pain.
Worms, once in the human body, can migrate. Their progress was accompanied by severe pain. A patient with helminthiasis most often thinks he has a worsening of arthritis. In fact, unpleasant sensations in worms are the body’s response to tissue injury.
The person experiences a state of apathy, impaired ability to concentrate, memory problems. This happens if parasites are present in the body for a long time. There is a previously unusual allergy, intolerance to the body of some products. Worms are the culprit for skin problems. Most common:
- acne, pimples all over the body;
- urticaria, atopic dermatitis, eczema;
- premature wrinkle formation;
- hair loss, bald spots.
More frequent rhinitis, bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia can be caused by the migration of worms into the bloodstream. Sometimes parasites settle in the lungs, lay eggs there that mature and turn into full-fledged individuals. On X-rays, images obtained after tomography, the worms look like a focal darkening of a round or oval shape.
The release of toxic waste from helminths into the bloodstream makes people complain about:
- constant anxiety, irritability;
- depression;
- insomnia.
Both obesity and overweight are common symptoms of worms. Digestive problems, intoxication lead to poor appetite. The person loses weight. The long-term presence of parasites is the reason for the decrease in blood glucose levels and the constant feeling of hunger. At the cellular level, there is a lack of nutrients, which is compensated by the accumulation of adipose tissue.
Drug Therapy
Treatment of helminthiasis without prior consultation with a specialist is not recommended for several reasons. The first is that even after the feces has been analyzed several times, it is not always possible to identify parasites. To determine exactly what types of worms have settled in a person, you will need to do a more detailed examination, including:
- general blood test with leukoformula;
- biochemical blood test (liver function tests);
- analysis of feces and rectal mucus.
Sometimes, in order to detect worms that have attacked the body, it is necessary to examine the bile, sputum and small parts of the skin.
It is a dubious endeavor to self-treat worms in an adult or child. Pharmacological preparations are quite toxic. At the same time, many of them have action directed against a particular species without affecting others.
If, according to the test results, worms are detected in a person's feces or the presence of other parasites is confirmed by other diagnostic procedures, the doctor for infectious diseases chooses the most effective medicine. The doctor who prescribes the tablets must state exactly how many times the medicine will have to be taken and its dose, based on the patient's weight. Worm treatment is carried out:
- Albendazole;
- Parazikvantel; Medamin;
- Pirantel.
The process of removing worms is supplemented with drugs that remove intoxication (sorbents), antiallergic drugs, vitamins.
Preventive measures
Since worms are very easily transmitted from animals or infected people, every effort should be made to prevent their appearance. To do this, you must strictly adhere to hygiene. An important factor in protection against worms is the proper preparation of the products from which food is prepared.
Doctors recommend an annual prophylactic worm cleansing procedure in the spring and fall. Even if there are no obvious symptoms of infection in the person. In order to achieve its maximum efficiency, it is achieved if all family members take the medicine recommended by the doctor. Most parasites are so small that you can only see a photograph of the eggs of some worms made with a powerful microscope when examining feces, another biomaterial.