About 80% of the planet's inhabitants are infected with various helminths. It is often necessary to treat a disease for a long time and without success, the real cause of which is parasites. The worms that can live in a person violate the integrity of the vascular walls, block the intestinal lumen and damage internal organs. They produce toxic substances that enter the bloodstream.
What worms do humans have?
Helminths inhabit the intestines or parasitize, inhabiting any other organ. There are several varieties of them, the most common being nematodes. Its body is elongated, in cross section - round, shaped, narrowed at the ends. The infection occurs most often:
- roundworms, trichinae, settling in the small intestine and other organs;
- whipworms that live in the large intestine and feed on blood and mucous membranes;
- pinworms that accumulate in the cecum and colon.
Pinworms are especially often found in children when feces are tested for enterobiasis.
In addition to those listed, there are more than a hundred less common parasites that inhabit different parts of the intestine. For example, worms in humans like hookworm and roundworm are in a thin segment, the thick section is usually clogged with tricurids. People become hostesses for tapeworm adults with a long, flattened body. Large bovine and swine tapeworms, cestodes and echinococci are installed in the intestines.
Larva worms have suction cups on their bodies that vary in length from several millimeters (Siberian plaice) to 7 cm (fasciola). The parasites pass to man from the consumption of raw fish, with unboiled water. Sometimes, worm infection occurs through the skin when swimming in lakes, rivers (schistosomiasis). After settling down once, they can feel good in various human organs for several years.
Infection methods
The ways in which the different types of worms enter are varied. The main method of infection by parasites 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 feces are rarely seen with the naked eye. But flies that fly over the droppings always carry their eggs. If the insect sits on a piece of food, the chances of infection increase significantly.
Worms in humans appear after working without gloves with soil and sand. In the latter case, young children are more likely to suffer from parasites, for whom the litter box is a favorite place to play. On the surface of the soil, helminths fall along with animal feces - cats, dogs, cattle and are carried by flies. They penetrate the human body through dirty hands, microtrauma on the skin and insufficiently processed vegetables. Inhaling street dust saturated with very tenacious larvae can also infect.
Another factor that contributes to the emergence of worms is the use of poor quality water. It is highly undesirable to swallow the liquid while swimming in the sea, river or lake. It contains a large number of parasites from the feces of fish, water birds and domestic animals. Human consumption of raw fish, meat threatens to become infected and parasites - bovines, pig tapeworms, larvae - will settle in the body. In medical reference books, there are pictures of earthworms, the length of which reaches several meters.
Symptoms and signs of helminthic invasion
Becoming hosts for parasites, people start to lose weight quickly, become exhausted and pale. Indicate the presence of worms:
- pain in the body;
- painful sensations in the joints;
- general weakness;
- loss of appetite;
- diarrhea or constipation;
- nausea hits.
But to make sure that helminths are present in the body, an examination is necessary. This will help identify worms in the stool or specific antibodies in the blood.
Symptoms are worse in the absence of timely treatment. Depending on which worms prevail in the body, the locations of their accumulation will be different in the signs of the disease. Biliary stasis occurs when the ducts are blocked by parasites. The person feels heaviness and pain in the right hypochondrium, bitterness in the mouth. Periodically plagued by nausea, constipation.
Many worms secrete substances that irritate the intestinal walls - diarrhea occurs, in which the stools are watery, foamy. In addition, the patient has increased gas production, loud snoring in the abdomen, pain in the navel.
The worms, once in the human body, are able to migrate. Their progress is accompanied by severe pain. Most of the time, a patient with helminthiasis thinks he has an exacerbation of arthritis. In fact, unpleasant sensations with worms are the body's response to tissue damage.
A person experiences a state of apathy, a deterioration of the ability to concentrate, memory problems. This happens when 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 to blame for skin problems. The most common:
- acne, pimples all over the body;
- hives, atopic dermatitis, eczema;
- early wrinkle formation;
- hair loss, bald spots.
Most frequent rhinitis, bronchitis, asthma and pneumonia can be caused by the migration of worms with the bloodstream. Sometimes, the parasites settle in the lungs, lay eggs there, which mature and become developed individuals. In X-ray images, obtained after tomography, the worms look like a focal round or oval shaped darkening.
The release of toxic helminth waste into the bloodstream makes people complain about:
- constant anxiety, irritability; depression
- ;
- insomnia.
Both obesity and underweight are common symptoms of worms. Digestive problems, intoxication lead to poor appetite. A person loses body weight. The prolonged presence of parasites is the reason for the decrease in blood glucose levels and a constant feeling of hunger. At the cellular level, there is a lack of nutrients, which is compensated by the accumulation of adipose tissue.
Medical therapy
The treatment of helminthiasis without prior consultation with a specialist is not recommended for several reasons. The first is that even after passing the stool several times for analysis, it is not always possible to identify the parasites. To determine exactly what type of worms have settled in a person, you will need to take a more detailed examination, including:
- complete blood count with leukoform;
- biochemical blood test (liver function tests);
- analysis of feces and rectal mucus.
Sometimes, to detect the worms that have infested the body, it is necessary to examine the bile, sputum and small parts of the skin.
It is a dubious task to treat worms independently in an adult or a child. Pharmacological preparations are quite toxic. At the same time, many of them have an action directed against a certain species, without affecting others.
If, according to the test results, worms are detected in a person's feces or if the presence of parasites is confirmed by other diagnostic procedures, the infectious disease doctor selects the most effective drug. The doctor who prescribes the pills should indicate exactly how often the medication should be taken and its dose, based on the patient's weight. Worms are treated:
- Albendazole;
- Paraziquantel;
- Medamin;
- Mebendazole;
- Pirantel.
The procedure to get rid of worms is complemented with drugs that remove poisoning (sorbents), antiallergic medicines and vitamins.
Preventive measures
Since worms are easily transmitted by animals or an infected person, every effort must be made to prevent their appearance. To do this, you must strictly respect hygiene. An important protective factor against worms is the correct preparation of the products from which the food is prepared.
Doctors recommend an annual prophylactic procedure to clean worms in spring and autumn. Even though there are no obvious symptoms of infection in a person. To achieve its maximum effectiveness it is obtained if all members of the family take the medicine recommended by the doctor. Most parasites are so small that you can only see a picture of the eggs of some worms made by a powerful microscope when examining feces, another biomaterial.