What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

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Fishing is a popular hobby. Fresh, freshly caught fish from the river, you will agree with me, much tastier and healthier frozen from the store.

However, river fish can cause such a disease as opisthorchiasis. Of course she doesn’t die, but trouble for the health of it a lot of brings. Let’s see how to get infected with opisthorchiasis and what you need to do the hostess in the kitchen, together with fried fish do not submit to the table eggs opisthorchis.

How are infected with opisthorchiasis?

Opisthorchiasis cause liver flukes — opisthorchis. Susceptibility to it is high. The most serious risk of infection are fish from the carp family.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

People who eat raw, poorly salted or insufficiently fried and boiled river fish are exposed to the disease. Sick as Pets and wild animals that feed on raw fish, a person is infected by Pets when they are stroking, hugging or kissing.

For the development of the disease, it is necessary that the Fluke eggs first get into the pond, where they must be swallowed by a freshwater mollusk. After 2 weeks of eggs turns into cercaria and leave the body of the first intermediate host. Then the cercariae should penetrate the muscles of the fish, where they undergo the next cycle of development and become metacercariae after 6 weeks. These are Mature larvae that are already able to cause the disease. The ultimate host is human or fish-eating animals.

How the disease manifests itself, its symptoms

If a person moves to the area, endemic to the disease, and infected with cat Fluke eggs, develops an acute form of invasion. In permanent living in the endemic area, the disease is often chronic.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

Mature eggs of opisthorchis enter the body through infected fish. The parasite first settles in the duodenum, then parasites in the ducts of the liver and gall bladder. The disease can occur in acute or chronic form.

Acute opisthorchiasis

The initial symptoms of the disease appear 2-4 weeks after eating infected fish. If a person first meets with an invasion, the body reacts with an acute course of the disease, which lasts 1-2 months.

The acute period of the disease is accompanied by:

  • fever,
  • ache in the whole body (intoxication),
  • dyspeptic disorders (nausea and vomiting, increased gas formation),
  • signs of hepatitis,
  • decrease or lack of appetite.

In the process of their life parasites emit toxins that cause an allergic reaction in the form of itching and rashes on the skin.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

Chronic opisthorchiasis

This form of the disease is characterized by the presence of complaints from the gastrointestinal tract. Severe pain in the right hypochondrium, resembling hepatic colic, dyspeptic disorders, feeling of heaviness and distension in the stomach, decreased appetite; allergic reactions in the form of urticaria or angioedema are possible.

Manifestations of opisthorchiasis are sometimes confused with pathology of the liver and pancreas. Unpleasant symptoms accompany the patient almost constantly and cause headaches, irritability, fatigue, weakness. To establish the diagnosis and to appoint correct treatment helps examination of feces and duodenal contents.

Chronic opisthorchiasis lasts for years, up to 20-30 years. Over time, the symptoms of chronic hepatitis, chronic pancreatitis, which can go into cirrhosis, liver or pancreatic cancer, are joined.

How to protect yourself from infection with opisthorchiasis?

Everyone knows that any disease is better to prevent than to treat it. Treatment will be more expensive, and the process is long, as the therapy is carried out in a complex. In addition to the use of Anthelmintics, prescribe treatment aimed at restoring the gastrointestinal tract.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

The main rule: to protect yourself from opisthorchiasis, do not use contaminated river fish. Especially dangerous is dried, smoked, salted, raw or stroganina. But how do you know if the fish is infected or not? Unfortunately, the naked eye can not see it. It is therefore very important to correctly carry out the disinfection of fish. This is done by:

  • frost,
  • saltings,
  • heat treatment (cooking, frying, making canned food).

Freezing

Larvae tolerate subzero temperatures well and do not die for a long time. Therefore, freezing carcasses, watch the uniformity of freezing. When using home freezers, be guided by the following rules (freezing time and temperature inside the carcass):

  • 7 hours at t-40 ° C,
  • 14 hours at t-35 ° C,
  • 32 hours at t-28 ° C.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

Failure to comply with the recommendations (not long enough freezing or temperature above normal) does not guarantee complete disinfection of fish.

Salting

A reliable way to kill larvae is salting. Before salting the fish, it must be gutted, washed, dried with a paper towel or allow to drain the water in a colander. Prepared carcasses are placed in a container, alternating a layer of fish and a layer of salt; 1 kg of fish take 140-150 g of salt.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

We leave the fish for salting for at least 5 days, if it is small. If the fish is large, the salting continues for up to 7-10 days; to reduce the time, large carcasses are cut into small pieces.

Drying

Many people like dried fish. To make it safe, drying is carried out, observing the following rules:

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

  • before drying the fish gutted, washed;
  • the prepared semi-finished product is placed in a salt solution (at the rate of 2 kg of salt per 10 kg of fish) for 2 weeks, soaked to taste and dried in a ventilated room;
  • if salted fish is not soaked, the drying should last at least 3 weeks;
  • big fish cut along the ridge that it is salty.

Smoked

Smoke pre-salted fish. With hot Smoking, the death of larvae occurs at t +70…+80 ° C for 2-2.5 hours. For the preparation of cold smoked fish must be pre-salted or frozen.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

Heat treatment

Metacercariae are quite sensitive to high temperatures. If the larvae are removed from the fish, they die at a temperature of +55 ° C for 5 minutes. But in pieces larvae die not at once. If you fry medium-sized fish or minced fish cutlets, it will take at least 15 minutes for complete disinfection. If the fish is large, it is first necessary to cut along the ridge and cook for at least 15-20 minutes.

It is best to cook the fish as follows: put the fish pieces on a hot pan with fat, fry on one side until Golden brown, then turn over, cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat and fry until cooked.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

  • The same time — that is, 20 minutes from boiling — will be needed for disinfection, if you cook fish soup or fish soup. Large fish should be cut into portions.
  • Fans of fish dumplings can get them out of the broth after 5 minutes from boiling.
  • Large fish pies should be baked for at least 1 hour, and if you bake small fish pies, then 20 minutes is enough.

Canned fish

When a lot of fish, homemade canned. Fish pre-gutted, washed and allowed to drain the water. In the prepared clean cans of 0.5 l, put the carcasses, salt to taste, put spices; you can add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil on top; cover with metal covers (roll up is not necessary) and sterilize one of the methods described below.

What is Opisthorchiasis and How to Disinfect Fish

  • Option 1

Banks put on a baking sheet and place in a cold oven. Include it at 200ºC, leave for 4 hours. After banks careful not to burn yourself, pull out and immediately roll.

  • Option 2

Banks put in a pressure cooker filled with a small amount of water (about 1/2-1/3 the height of the cans), light the fire. As soon as the steam starts to come out of the pressure cooker, the fire is reduced and left so for 1 hour. Then steam gently drop or wait until the cooker has cooled slightly and you can open it. Banks with fish take out and immediately roll up.

  • Option 3

You can do without a pressure cooker, placing the banks in a normal pot of water. Then the process of cooking canned food will take 4-5 hours.

Prevention of opisthorchiasis

  • Do not risk eating raw or insufficiently heat treated or salted fish.
  • Remember that you can get infected from animals, so do not feed your Pets raw fish.
  • Do not throw fish waste into water bodies.

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