Parasites, worms… One word only inspires disgust and loathing. Helminths thousands of years — since those distant times, when people still lived in caves, — dwelt in body rights, but only in nineteenth century, when invented microscope, we learned about their existence of.
What helminths most often affect people? According to statistics, among the diseases caused by intestinal parasites, is in the first place enterobiasis, second — ascariasis – the third opisthorchiasis. Followed by hydatid disease, trichinosis.
Let us dwell on the most common diseases. This information is necessary for everyone, because knowing about the possible sources of infection and prevention methods, you can protect yourself and your loved ones, and the ability to recognize the symptoms of the disease will allow time to sound the alarm and seek qualified help until the parasites have caused serious harm to health.
Enterobiasis
Distributed in almost all countries of the world. Most of the infected are children attending preschool institutions, a little less — primary school students. Kindergarten and service workers are at increased risk and need additional health monitoring.
Enterobiasis – helminthiasis caused by pinworms. It is a small parasite, the length of females up to 10-12 mm long, males 3-4 mm. life expectancy of females is 1-2 months, during which time it lays up to 10 thousand eggs. Eggs of pinworms are very sensitive to drying, sunlight, less — to disinfectants. At a temperature of +10…+12 degrees they withstand drying for up to 3 weeks. Adults are sensitive to the anthelmintic – Pyrantel, and decaris, vermox, piperazino.
How infection occurs
The source of infection with pinworms is an invasive person. The peculiarity of pinworms is that, unlike other types of helminths, the female does not lay eggs in the intestine. She crawls out of the anus (usually at night when a person falls asleep) and lays fertilized eggs around the anus, on the buttocks, on the bed linen. Then most of the females die. At the moment when the parasite crawls on the skin and lays eggs, a person has an itch.
Making the bed in the morning, many shake bedding, as a result of eggs pinworms easily scatter throughout the room, settle on toys, food and other items, and from there it is easy to get into the gastrointestinal tract. Proved the role of flies in the spread of the disease; contributes to the habit of biting nails.
Not observing personal hygiene and cleanliness in the room, it is easy to cause re-infection. Enterobiosis is often a family invasion, which affects all family members, and the disease can be long.
Symptoms and consequences of the disease
The first symptoms of infection with pinworms appear after about 2 weeks. If the number of parasites is small, any signs can not be seen. With a strong defeat of the body by helminths, there is not only a strong itch at night, but also symptoms of intoxication, especially in children. Parasites excrete their waste products, and weak child’s body reacts to them.
You may notice that:
- night sleep becomes restless;
- the baby is often cranky;
- there is weakness, lethargy, malaise, headaches;
- there are abdominal pain (in the umbilical region), especially during meals;
- possible intestinal disorders;
- deteriorating appetite;
- the child-schoolboy gets tired quickly, poor at learning the educational material, reduced his alertness.
If such symptoms occur, you should consult a doctor. Most likely he will appoint an analysis – scraping from the perianal folds. This is the most reliable method of diagnosis. If the result is positive, treatment will be required; for it to be effective, it is recommended that all family members be treated for preventive purposes.
Without timely treatment of enterobiasis, complications may occur:
- vulvovaginitis in girls — when crawling into the vagina pinworms;
- parasites can get into the abdominal cavity or the cecum, which sometimes leads to oophoritis, salpingitis, appendicitis and even peritonitis;
- pinworms cause sensitization of the body, which is manifested by various allergic reactions and an increased number of eosinophils in the blood analysis;
- enterobiosis leads to a weakening of the immune system; children infected with pinworms often get sick, physically develop worse.
Prevention of enterobiasis
In order not to become infected with enterobiasis, it is enough to follow simple rules:
- wash your hands after walking, any contamination and before eating;
- the evening and morning after sleep is necessarily tempted child, clothing after washing every time clean, ironed with a hot iron panties;
- do not shake the bed linen when making the bed;
- only perform wet cleaning in the room.
These affordable and not difficult measures, if strictly adhered to, will help not only to prevent the disease, but get rid of it even without the use of drugs for 1-2 months.
Ascariasis
Another common bot, second only to enterobiasis — ascariasis. Infestation is called round worms – Ascaris. They parasitize in the small intestine, reaching a length of up to 30 cm. Infection occurs through the soil through dirty hands, unwashed vegetables, as well as through contaminated water.
For information: there is another kind of roundworm dog, otherwise they are called Toxocara, and they cause the disease toxocariasis (“disease from the sandbox”), but that’s a topic for another discussion.
Cycle of Ascaris development and symptoms of infection
The clinical picture of ascariasis is affected by the cycle of parasite development. In the first phase, invasive eggs enter the intestine with food. There they turn into a larva that penetrates through the intestinal mucosa into the blood.
With the flow of blood, the larva passes through the liver and the right ventricle of the heart; passing through the small circle of blood circulation, it appears in the respiratory tract. Irritating the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract (lungs, bronchi, trachea), larvae provoke cough, nasal congestion. In addition, the sensitivity of the body to external stimuli increases, as a result, various rashes may appear on the skin.
In the second phase of the cycle larvae when swallowing saliva or food again fall into the gastrointestinal tract. In the small intestine of them develop Mature individuals. In this phase, patients with ascariasis complain of abdominal pain, they have abundant salivation, poor appetite. Signs of intoxication are added: fatigue, lethargy, headaches, subfebrile temperature. Children begin to study worse, become irritable, inattentive, quickly get tired in the classroom. In the analysis of blood marked eosinophilia.
The entire development cycle of ascarids takes about 3 months. It so happens that a person swallows one unfertilized egg, which goes through the entire cycle of development and comes out naturally. It’s a transitory carrier.
Complications, which leads to ascariasis
If parasites in the intestine have accumulated a lot, it can lead to unpleasant consequences. Tangle Ascaris can cause intestinal obstruction or perforation of the intestinal walls with the development of peritonitis. With such a serious complication requires urgent surgery. Long-term (chronic) invasion leads to the development of anemia, weight loss, nervousness.
Prevention of ascariasis
Preventive measures against ascariasis are not much different from the prevention of other helminthiasis. The main condition – personal hygiene, eating only well-washed fruits and vegetables, maintaining cleanliness in the room.
In health care, housing and communal services, there are certain programs for the prevention of ascariasis. Whether they are implemented or not is another matter. However, each of us is able to protect ourselves from infection and prevent the disease in their children.
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