Worms in humans, the symptoms and treatment of which will be suggested by a doctor, in the human body are caused by two types of worms - round (nematodes) and flat (flukes and tapeworms). Each of the parasites causes significant harm to the body, especially if proper treatment has not been given in time.
Be sure to wash your hands when you get home, and also rinse vegetables or fruit under running warm or hot water, as this is where the parasite eggs are likely to be. Products such as fish meat or livestock must necessarily undergo heat treatment. Under the action of high temperatures, the meat gets rid of the eggs of various helminths and may be suitable for consumption.
Varieties of roundworms
Pinworms are small parasitic flatworms of gray-white color that awaken enterobiosis.
These parasites enter the human body in the following ways:
- food (through the oral cavity);
- by unwashed/dirty hands.
Pinworm eggs can be found in unwashed fruits or vegetables, or in the coat of a sick animal. Children who scratch the itchy areas of skin and subsequently swallow eggs (for example, with contaminated food) are more likely to be infected with enterobiosis. It takes two weeks to develop pinworm larvae in the environment of the digestive tract, and after full development, a full-fledged worm lives in all parts of the large intestine.
Trichinella - these parasites have round bodies no longer than 5 mm in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Larvae and eggs prefer to be in poorly fried meat (wild boar, pork, bear meat). In the human body, it takes up to 4 days for Trichinella to mature into an adult, and its life cycle is 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal walls and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Roundworms are representatives of large sizes, having a spindle shape with a red-yellow tint. Males of this species reach a size of 15-25 cm, and females - up to 40 cm. Their body is devoid of any adaptations for fixation in the intestine, they simply move independently to the food mass through the intestines.
You can get infected with roundworms by swallowing ripe eggs when eating unwashed vegetables or fruits, on which the smallest particles of soil remain. After the eggs enter the internal environment of the body, adult larvae hatch from them, terrorizing the intestinal walls. Via the bloodstream, the parasites can reach the heart muscle and then the lungs.
Only at this point the cycle of travel through the body does not end, because the larva moves through the airways into the mouth.
By swallowing the parasite again, the body already creates a favorable environment for its development.
The route of a full-fledged worm will pass through the small intestine. Their life cycle is 12 months, after which they die and are excreted in the stool.
Vlasoglavy - worms in humans, the symptoms and treatment of which are determined at any time after infection, preferring to live directly in the intestines. This worm eats the blood component or else feeds on the intestinal mucosa.
Females lay eggs directly on the walls of the affected organ, then they come out with feces and develop under environmental conditions. An already mature larva, the body of which is oblong and does not exceed the limits of 5-15 mm. enters the food human body.
These parasites have round bodies not exceeding 5 millimeters in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Larvae with eggs are found in poorly fried meat (wild boar, pork, bear meat).
In the human body, it takes a maximum of 4 days for Trichinella to become an adult, and its life cycle does not exceed 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal walls and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Necator/hookworm. The link between these parasites is direct, in connection with the ailments caused and the biological signs. They live in the duodenum, and due to their small size (10-15 mm), they move freely in its environment.
The larvae can only enter the body through the skin if a person has been in contact with contaminated soil. Another target of worms are the lungs as well as the digestive tract. They feed only on blood that comes out of bitten blood vessels. Due to the violent activity of these parasites, blood clotting is disturbed. Adults consume blood between 0. 1 and 0. 35 ml per day.
Varieties of flatworms
Wide ribbon. The length of the parasite's body, which is 10-20 meters, deserves special attention.
The parasite comes from freshwater fish and crayfish, the larvae penetrate into eggs and fish fillets.
The formation of an adult worm takes a maximum of 25 days, then a person becomes ill with diphyllobothriasis (the digestive tract is disturbed, vitamin B deficiency).
The liver fluke is a flatworm, reaching a size of 10-20 mm, and there is a second name for this parasite - the cat fluke. In 50% of cases of infection, locals who have eaten infected fish (carp, crucian, bream, roach) suffer. Fish are infected through the liver flukes by a consumed snail that has previously consumed helminth eggs with fresh water.
To clean the fish from the parasite, heat treatment is necessary, otherwise the larva will penetrate the internal environment of the body, damaging the gallbladder along with the intestines. Signs of the acute phase of the development of helminthiasis in humans are a feeling of nausea, turning into vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen, allergic reactions, muscle spasms. The parasite creates irreversible changes in the body, and even after its expulsion from the body of patients, all sorts of inflammations and disorders are inevitable.
Pork / bovine tapeworm. The body length of the parasite is 5-6 meters, and its larvae hide in the meat of large animals (pigs, cattle). The disease awakened by these helminths is called teniasis and teniarinhoz.
The larvae of both species of tapeworm, Finns, are whitish blisters attached to the walls of the small intestine. To reach and form an adult, the parasite needs 3 months, and every day the worm grows. The total number of segments reaches 2000, the last of which freely "trails" the large intestine.
Then the worms leave the body with the feces through the anus. The most common and obvious symptom of helminthiasis is a disturbed digestive tract, as well as food intake in large quantities, and the patient visually does not gain weight.
Echinococcus. In this case, a person acts as an intermediate host, since the last are wolves, cats, dogs. Animals can become infected through direct contact with contaminated objects or people. As soon as the eggs of the parasite enter the intestines, six-hooked larvae immediately develop, which in medicine are called oncospheres.
The favorite habitat of the worm is the lungs and liver, and the larva becomes an echinococcal cyst, which increases in size. All nearby tissues are subject to rapid destruction.
Often, doctors do not detect echinococcosis and confuse it with a malignant or benign formation. In addition to compressing blood vessels and internal organs, ruptured echinococcus cysts are common.
If this happens, not only does a toxic shock immediately occur in the body, but a ruptured cyst causes the formation of several new ones.
The last type of parasite is alveococci, in the medical literature they are called echinococcus. It is this worm that awakens a terrible disease that causes damage to the extent of cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. The worm's oncospheres enter the intestines, then the embryos hatch from the eggs and begin to destroy the intestinal walls. Once the walls are pierced, the parasite enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body.
Most often, as mentioned earlier, alveococci terrorize the liver, where the larva gradually grows. During development, the larvocyst is formed in worms - an aggressive formation, which rapidly increases in size (a multi-chambered vesicle, gradually growing). These vesicles penetrate the cells of the liver, on the same principle as cancerous metastases.
Nearby tissues feel a violation of blood flow, and subsequent necrotic changes occur in them. Fibrous nodes with such multi-chambered blisters form on neighboring structures and can remain in the human body for several years. That is why doctors, when detecting this parasite, resort to surgical intervention.
Remark
Modern science knows about 280 species of worms. It is these microorganisms that can parasitize and grow in a variety of tissues and organs of the human body.
Every year, these worms in humans, the symptoms and treatment of which are determined by the doctor, affect the organs and tissues of about 15 million people, and most, to be more precise, 80% of them. they are children.
How can you catch worms:
- The use of poorly heat-treated meat dishes or raw meat in general. So, beef is the habitat of tapeworm and pork carries pork tapeworm.
- Consumption of infected fish in lightly salted or raw form. River water is often contaminated with helminth larvae.
- Water can also cause worms. This is due to the fact that a person can drink raw water or wash food, dishes with contaminated water. The risk is particularly high outdoors.
- Soil can also cause worms to appear. Because it may contain animal or human faeces. But how do worms enter the human body? The answer is simple - through unwashed hands after working in the garden or outdoor recreation.
Also, you can get infected through direct contact with a person with helminthiasis. That is, the infection occurs through dishes, laundry or personal hygiene items.
If the case is completely neglected, and the parasitic infection is in the acute phase of its development, doctors prescribe detoxification and desensitization therapy. And if the disease is very difficult, glucocorticoids are prescribed.
Speaking of specific therapy, it takes into account the nature of the pathogen and involves special chemotherapeutic agents of an anthelmintic nature.
In addition, patients are advised to take various antihistamines. At the end of the treatment, you will have to follow a course of probiotics. All this is necessary to restore the intestinal microflora. During treatment, the patient must follow a special diet, consisting of easily digestible foods with a minimum fat content.
At the time of treatment, it is very important to observe impeccable personal hygiene, otherwise there is a risk of reinfection.
In addition, all family members, as well as other people who were in constant and close contact with the patient, should undergo anthelmintic treatment.
Signs of worms in humans: symptoms in children and adults
Signs of worms in humans, the symptoms of which may be the same, can be observed in an acute form, both in adults and in children:
- Unreasonable increase in appetite and profuse salivation, and at the same time weight is lost rapidly.
- Another variant of the development of symptoms can also occur - the appetite disappears, after eating the person feels sick.
- Perhaps the appearance of headaches and dizziness.
- Loose stools or constipation can also indicate the presence of worms.
- Pain in the abdomen.
- Sudden appearance of an allergy with incomprehensible symptoms.
- Weakening of hair and nails (their fragility increases due to lack of iron and vitamin B12).
- Due to the weakening of the immune system, various inflammations appear in the nasopharynx and in the genital area.
If the body is heavily infected with worms, a large amount of toxic substances that appear due to the vital activity of helminths are released into the human blood. This circumstance can greatly affect the health of the child. First of all, the nervous system suffers. Therefore, if a child shows sudden aggression, irritability, insomnia and other signs of nervous disorders, the child should be checked for the presence of helminths.
Even if there are no pronounced signs and there are no functional disorders, worms can be present in the human body and it is necessary to pass regular tests to identify them.
Quite often it happens that after preventive vaccinations, a child develops an allergic reaction due to the presence in the body of toxic substances secreted by helminths.
In fact, determining whether there are worms or not based only on superficial signs is a rather difficult task. After all, the symptoms presented may be a sign of another disease. This task is especially difficult for pregnant women. Since all of the above signs of worms in humans, the symptoms of which were described above, in pregnant women appear due to the process itself.
For this reason, signs of helminthic infection in pregnant women can be distinguished by such symptoms: itching in the anus and burning in the vaginal area, which increases at night, weight loss, fatigue, fever.
To diagnose a helminth infection, a number of measures are taken, including the following procedures:
- Collect a history to identify possible sources of infection.
- The study of samples of feces and blood, rectal and perianal mucus, muscle tissue, sputum and bile in the laboratory. When carrying out these activities, signs of the presence of helminths in the body (eggs or worms themselves, as well as their parts) can be detected. It should also be noted that an increased number of eosinophils can serve as a sign of the presence of worms in the body.
- Serological studies (ELISA, RSK, etc. ) make it possible to detect the presence of parasites at the stage of larvae or helminths living in muscle tissue.
- To determine the presence of parasites affecting the liver, ultrasound, CT scan and endoscopy are prescribed.
Worms in the Human Liver: Symptoms by Type of Worm
Human liver worms, the symptoms of which largely depend on the type of helminth, can also migrate to other organs.
The appearance of primary signs of worm infection does not appear immediately. In many respects, the timing of the appearance of distinctive features depends on the specific composition of the parasites. Thus, the presence of ascaris in almost two to three days is manifested by a deterioration in the general condition of a person.
In most cases, the first symptoms of infection with other types of helminths do not begin to appear until two to three weeks after the end of the incubation period. There are such parasites (for example, filariasis) in which the incubation period exceeds six months.
The problem with determining the presence of helminths in the human body is that in the case of a primary infection with a small number of worms or a single individual, there are practically no visual signs. Symptoms begin to appear only after intensive reproduction of helminths or when they reach large sizes (large tapeworm, ascaris).
It is as reliable as possible to determine infection with pinworms. In their presence, a characteristic itch appears in the anus, which intensifies at night. Basically, the itching occurs within a few days, then goes away for about two weeks and comes back.
When infected with helminths such as trichuriasis, hookworm, schistosomiasis, diphyllobothriasis, beriberi and anemia develop.
The appearance of symptoms of roundworm infection largely depends on the period of development of the parasites. So, if they are at the initial stage of development, the larvae move through the blood to almost all internal organs, and the following symptoms of the disease appear: subfebrile temperature, weakness, cough with purulent sputum, volatile infiltrates are visible on theX-rays of the lungs, which eventually disappear.
With severe infection, bronchitis and pneumonia may develop. With the further development of parasites, there is a violation of the functions of the gastrointestinal tract.
Trichinosis - is manifested mainly by pain in muscle tissue, fever and swelling.
Such worms in the human liver, the symptoms of which are manifested by jaundice, such as fascioliasis, opisthorchiasis, clonorchiasis, reveal their presence with an increase in the spleen and liver and other serious disorders in the body.
Almost all types of worms cause disorders of the central nervous system, while the sick person experiences severe headaches and fatigue, a generally calm person becomes irritable and impatient, and unreasonable attacks of aggression may appear.