Worms in humans, the symptoms and treatment of which will be prescribed by a doctor, are provoked by two types of worms in the human body - roundworms (nematodes) and flatworms (flukes and tapeworms). Each of the parasites causes significant damage to the body, especially if not treated in time.
Be sure to wash your hands when you come home, as well as wash vegetables or fruits under running hot or warm water, as they are more likely to have parasitic eggs on them. Products such as fish or beef must undergo heat treatment. Under the influence of high temperatures, the meat gets rid of the eggs of various helminths and may be suitable for eating.
Types of roundworms
Pinworms are small gray-white parasitic flatworms that cause enterobiasis.
Such parasites enter the human body in the following ways:
- alimentary (from the oral cavity);
- through unwashed / dirty hands.
Pinworm eggs can be found in unwashed fruits or vegetables or in the coat of a sick animal. Children who scratch itchy areas of the skin and then swallow eggs (for example, with contaminated food) are more likely to become infected with enterobiasis. In the environment of the digestive system, the development of pinworm larvae takes two weeks, and after full development, a full-fledged worm lives in all parts of the large intestine.
Trichinella - these parasites have a round body no longer than 5 mm in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Larvae and eggs prefer to be in weakly fried meat (boar, pork, bear meat). Trichinella takes up to 4 days to mature in the human body, and its lifespan is 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal wall and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Roundworms are large representatives with a reddish-yellow spindle shape. Males of this species grow up to 15-25 cm, and females up to 40 cm. Their bodies are devoid of any adaptation to intestinal fixation, they only pass food independently through the intestines.
You can catch roundworms by swallowing mature eggs while eating unwashed vegetables or fruits with the smallest particles of soil left on them. Once the eggs have entered the body, the adult larvae emerge, frightening the intestinal walls. Through the blood, parasites can pass to the heart muscle and then to the lungs.
This does not end the journey in the body, as the larva moves from the respiratory tract to the mouth.
By reabsorbing the parasite, the body already creates a favorable environment for its development.
The path of a full-fledged worm will pass through the small intestine. Their lifespan is 12 months, after which they die and are excreted in the feces.
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 feeds on the intestinal mucosa.
Females lay eggs directly on the walls of the affected organ, then come out with the feces and develop in the environment. The body is elongated and no more than 5-15 mm, already mature larvae. enters the human body through food.
These parasites have a round body no longer than 5 millimeters in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Egg larvae are found in poorly fried meat (boar, pork, bear meat).
Trichinella needs a maximum of 4 days to mature in the human body, and its lifespan does not exceed 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal wall and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Necator / fork set up. These parasites are directly related to diseases and biological symptoms. They live in the duodenum and, due to their small size (10-15 mm), move freely in its environment.
Larvae can enter the body only through the skin if a person comes in contact with contaminated soil. Another target of worms is the lungs, along with the digestive system. They feed only on blood from bitten blood vessels. As a result of the intense activity of these parasites, blood clotting is disrupted. Adults consume 0, 1-0, 35 ml of blood per day.
Types of flatworms
Wide ribbon. The body length of the parasite, which is 10-20 meters, is noteworthy.
The parasite occurs in freshwater fish and crustaceans, the larvae enter the egg and fish fillets.
The formation of an adult worm takes a maximum of 25 days, and then the person becomes ill with diphyllobotriasis (digestive system is disturbed, vitamin B deficiency).
The liverwort is a flatworm, reaching a size of 10-20 mm, and this parasite has a second name - cat saliva. In 50% of cases, residents who eat infected fish (carp, crucian, bream, roach) suffer. Fish are infected with liver flu through a previously consumed snail that eats helminth eggs with fresh water.
Fish need heat treatment to clear the parasite, otherwise the larvae enter the body's internal environment, damaging the intestines and gallbladder. Symptoms of the acute stage of helminthiasis in humans are nausea, vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen, allergic reactions, muscle spasms. The parasite causes irreversible changes in the body, and even after being removed from the body of patients, all kinds of inflammation and disorders inevitably occur.
Pork / beef tapeworm. The body length of the parasite is 5-6 meters, the larvae hide in the meat of large animals (pigs, cattle). The disease caused by these helminths is called teniasis and teniarinhoz.
The larvae of both tapeworm species, the Finns, are whitish vesicles attached to the walls of the small intestine. It takes the parasite 3 months to reach and form an adult, and the worm develops every day. The total number of segments reaches 2, 000, the latter of which "empties" the colon freely.
The worms then leave the body with the feces through the anus. The most common and obvious sign of helminthiasis is a disorder of the digestive system, as well as a large intake of food and the patient does not gain weight visually.
Echinococcus. In this situation, a person acts as an intermediate host, because the latter are a wolf, a cat, a dog. Animals may come into direct contact with infected objects or humans. As soon as the parasite's eggs enter the intestines, six-hooked larvae develop, which in medicine is called the oncosphere.
The worm's favorite habitat is the lungs and liver, and the larvae grow in size, turning into echinococcal cysts. All nearby tissues are rapidly destroyed.
Doctors often do not detect echinococcosis and confuse it with a malignant or benign formation. In addition to constriction of blood vessels and internal organs, rupture of echinococcus cysts is common.
If this happens, the body does not receive immediate toxic shock, but a torn cyst can cause several new ones to form.
The last type of parasites are alveococci, which in the medical literature are called echinococci. It is this worm that causes the terrible disease of cancer and cirrhosis of the liver, which causes proportional damage. The oncospheres of the worm enter the intestines, then the embryos emerge from the eggs and begin to destroy the intestinal walls. After digging the walls, the parasite enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body.
Often, as mentioned earlier, alveococci frighten the liver, where the larvae gradually grow. In the process of development, larvae form a worm - a rapidly growing aggressive formation (multi-chambered vesicle, gradually growing). These vesicles enter liver cells on the same principle as cancer metastases.
Nearby tissues feel impaired blood flow, and then necrotic changes occur in them. Fibrous nodules with such multi-chambered blisters form in nearby structures and can remain in the human body for several years. Therefore, doctors resort to surgery when they detect this parasite.
Note
Modern science knows about 280 species of worms. It is these microorganisms that can parasitize and develop in various tissues and organs of the human body.
In humans, these worms, the symptoms and treatment of which are determined by a doctor, affect the organs and tissues of about 15 million people each year, or more precisely, 80% of them are children.
How to get worms:
- Weak heat treatment or the use of meat dishes with raw meat in general. So, beef is the tapeworm's habitat, and pork carries the 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 dishes and dishes with contaminated water. The risk is especially high when outdoors.
- The soil can also cause the appearance of worms. Because it may contain animal or human feces. How do worms enter the human body? The answer is simple - through unwashed hands after relaxing in the garden or outdoors.
In addition, you can come into direct contact with a person with helminthiasis. That is, the infection occurs through dishes, linen or personal hygiene items.
If the case is completely neglected and the parasitic infection is in the acute stage of its development, doctors prescribe detoxification and desensitization therapy. And if the disease is very severe, then glucocorticoids are prescribed.
When speaking for specific therapy, it takes into account the nature of the pathogen and covers specific chemotherapeutic agents of anthelmintic nature.
In addition, patients are advised to take various antihistamines. You should take a course of probiotics at the end of treatment. All this is necessary to restore the intestinal microflora. During treatment, the patient should follow a special diet consisting of easily digestible foods with a minimum of fat.
It is very important to follow good personal hygiene during therapy, otherwise there is a risk of re-infection.
In addition, all family members, as well as other persons in constant and close contact with the patient, should receive anthelmintic treatment.
Symptoms of worms in humans: symptoms in children and adults
Signs and symptoms of worms in humans can be the same, and can be observed in acute form in both adults and children:
- Unjustified increase in appetite and abundant saliva, at the same time, rapid weight loss.
- Another variant of the development of symptoms can occur - loss of appetite, a person feels unwell after eating.
- Perhaps the appearance of headaches and dizziness.
- Empty stools or constipation can also indicate the presence of worms.
- Abdominal pain.
- Unexplained symptoms Sudden onset of allergy.
- Weakening of hair and nails (their fragility increases due to iron and vitamin B12 deficiency).
- Due to the weakening of the immune system, various inflammations occur in the nasopharynx and genitals.
If the body is severely infected with worms, large amounts of toxins released into the human blood due to the vital activity of helminths are released. This situation can greatly affect the health of the child. First of all, the nervous system suffers. Therefore, if a child has symptoms of sudden aggression, irritability, insomnia and other nervous disorders, the child should be checked for helminths.
Even if there are no obvious symptoms and no functional disorders, there may be worms in the human body and tests should be performed regularly to identify them.
It is often the case that after prophylactic vaccinations, the child develops an allergic reaction due to the presence in the body of toxins secreted by helminths.
In fact, it is very difficult to determine the presence of worms based only on superficial signs. After all, these symptoms may be a sign of another disease. This task is especially difficult for pregnant women. Symptoms in pregnant women In humans, the symptoms described above are all due to the process itself.
For this reason, the symptoms of helminthic infection in pregnant women can be distinguished by the following symptoms: itching in the anus and burning in the vaginal area, weight gain at night, fatigue, fever.
A number of measures are taken to diagnose helminth infection, including the following procedures:
- Collect a medical history to identify possible sources of infection.
- Study of feces and blood, rectal and perianal mucus, muscle tissue, sputum and bile samples in the laboratory. During 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 increase in the number of eosinophils may be a sign of the presence of worms in the body.
- Serological studies (ELISA, RSK, etc. ) allow to detect the presence of parasites in the stage of larvae or helminths living in muscle tissue.
- Ultrasound, CT and endoscopy are prescribed to determine the presence of parasites affecting the liver.
Worms in the human liver: symptoms according to the type of worm
Depending on the type of helminth, the worms in the human liver can also spread to other organs.
The first signs of worm infection are not immediately apparent. In many ways, the timing of the appearance of different features depends on the species composition of the parasites. Thus, the presence of ascaris in almost two to three days manifests itself in the deterioration of the general condition of a person.
The first symptoms of infection with other types of helminths usually begin to appear only two to three weeks after the end of the incubation period. There are such parasites (eg, filariasis) that have an incubation period of more than 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 virtually no visual signs. Symptoms begin to appear only after intensive reproduction of helminths or when they reach large sizes (extensive tapeworm, roundworm).
Detection of infection with pinworms is the most reliable way. In their presence, a characteristic itching appears in the anus, which intensifies at night. Basically, itching occurs within a few days, then subsides in about two weeks and resumes.
Infection with such helminths develops trichuria, hookworm disease, schistosomiasis, diphyllobotriasis, beriberi and anemia.
The appearance of signs of infection with roundworms depends mainly on the stage of development of the parasite. Thus, if they are in the early stages of development, the larvae pass through the blood to almost all internal organs, and the following symptoms of the disease appear: subfebrile fever, weakness, cough with purulent sputum, volatile infiltrates appear on radiography. lungs that subsequently disappear.
Severe infection can develop bronchitis and pneumonia. With further development of parasites there is a violation of the functions of the gastrointestinal tract.
Trichinosis - manifests itself mainly with pain, fever and swelling in the muscle tissue.
Symptoms such as fascioliasis, opisthorchiasis, clonorrhea with icteric skin manifest themselves in the presence of such worms in the human liver, enlarged spleen and liver, and other serious disorders of the body.
Almost all types of worms cause disorders of the central nervous system, the sick person feels severe headaches and fatigue, a generally quiet person becomes irritable and impatient, and unwarranted aggression attacks may appear.