How to understand that you have worms

Personal hygiene has improved significantly over the past century, but the worm problem is still relevant not only for rural residents, but also for city dwellers. Statistics make it clear how high the risk of contracting helminthic invasions is: every third person on the planet suffers from helminthiasis. But this disease does not always manifest itself clearly, and in some cases, patients cannot correctly interpret the symptoms and remain in the dark for a long time without taking any action. Doubts about how to understand that you have worms arise both with helminthiasis and with other pathologies with similar symptoms.

Worms are an extensive group of parasitic worms, whose main signs of presence in the human body are similar to each other. Doctors believe that everyone at least once in their lives has been exposed to helminthiasis. In addition, the presence of helminths in the body can provoke the development of other, sometimes very dangerous, diseases, so the issue of diagnosing this disease is very important.

Mechanisms of Infection

Worm infection occurs in four main ways:

• Water, earth or sand. Soil and water provide ideal conditions for the storage of parasite eggs. A person who bathes in open water is always at risk of swallowing eggs, which later develop into adults. Not as rare as it may seem, people also swallow dirt particles, exposing themselves to the danger of infection. Certain types of parasites can enter the body directly through the skin.
• Food.In the skins of fruits and vegetables that have not been washed or cooked properly, there may be worm eggs. Consumption of raw or lightly processed meat, dried fish, dairy products, etc. is associated with no less risk.
• contact with the patient. Direct contact can occur with both a sick person and an infected animal. Joint activities, living in a common area, close communication contribute to the rapid entry of parasites into the intestines and their further development.
• Bites.The worms can be transmitted by insect bites. This is one of the rarest forms of infection in temperate latitudes, but it sometimes becomes the cause of illness. In hot countries, this path is more common, which should be remembered when going on vacation to warm lands.

Symptoms

For those who want to know how to understand that you have worms, you should understand the principles of symptom identification. Any symptoms of helminthiasis do not appear immediately after infection, but only when the parasite stops migrating through the gastrointestinal tract and begins to develop into an adult.

Some of the signs are due to the ingestion of toxins that the worm releases during life. All waste enters the intestinal lumen, from where it is absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to all organs. There are usually more signs and they are stronger in the condition of multiple infection, when the number of worms becomes significant. In people who are immunosuppressed or with other chronic conditions, symptoms get worse in a relatively short period of time.

All signs are divided into two large groups: explicit and hidden. The overt ones can be evaluated independently at home, while the hidden ones can only be determined on an outpatient basis with the help of consultations for certain tests and exams.

Explicit

The obvious ones include symptoms by which worms can be understood to be present in the body. Its presence does not cause very obvious symptoms, as, for example, happens with the development of viruses. Parasites aim at life inside the body, so too much deterioration in the infected host's condition would be life threatening. For this reason, symptoms do not require emergency care.

You can suspect or understand the presence of helminthic invasion by the following signs:

• Gradual weight loss for no apparent reason that continues for several months and sometimes for several years in a row. The rate of weight loss is not catastrophic, most of the time it is 2-5% per month. With high intensity of infection in people with reduced immunity, this number can reach 10%.
• Disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Some worms are able to block the bile ducts or intestinal lumen, which causes stable constipation. With a high intensity of toxin release, on the contrary, recurrent diarrhea can occur. Due to inflammation of the walls of the upper part of the small intestine, increased flatulence and gas formation are often observed, and bloating is possible.
• Severe pain in joints and muscles. Often, such manifestations are attributed to the development of arthrosis, but in the case of helminths, this is caused by the migration of parasites. Also, this pain could be due to the influence of toxins on the joints and muscle tissue.
• Itching near the anus. This phenomenon is caused by the fact that a large number of species of parasitic worms crawl out of the lumen of the rectum to reproduce and lay eggs. This causes intense itching, which tends to get worse at night and at night.
• allergic manifestations. It often occurs in response to the appearance of a large number of toxins in the blood or due to damage to the intestinal mucosa, which causes an increase in the immune system and an allergic reaction.
• Pulmonary manifestations. Possible in a wide range, ranging from constant coughing and ending with pneumonia. Characteristic of intense ascariasis occurring in a period of time not less than three months from the time of infection.
• Elevated temperature. Such manifestation can be of different intensity. Most of the time, a low temperature of around 37°C persists 24 hours a day, but in rare cases a fever may be observed.

Hidden

Hidden signs can only be revealed by a physician who has properly assessed the clinical picture and is able to understand that worms may be the likely cause. Preventive measures for diagnosing helminthiasis are:

• Stool analysis for worms. It must be presented in two steps, so experts do not consider the results of an analysis to be reliable. This is due to the cyclicity of reproduction, so that it is not always possible to understand from a stool analysis that the patient suffers from helminths.
• Clinical blood test. Elevated levels of eosinophils indicate that parasites are likely to be present in the body. Often, this assumption arises after testing during the treatment or diagnosis of other diseases.
• Antibody analysis. At the moment, it is one of the most reliable diagnostic methods that help to understand if a person has worms. Despite being more expensive than similar drugs, recently doctors increasingly prefer to prescribe it due to its high information content and reliability.

Antiparasitic medications or laxatives should not be taken before any clinical test for parasites, as this makes diagnosis difficult.

Signs in a child

In children, the presence of worms is diagnosed more often than in adults. This is facilitated by poor hygiene, close contact with domestic or stray animals, and incomplete development of the immune system. A growing organism generally reacts more acutely to the presence of parasites, and the consequences can be more global than in adults. But understanding that a child has worms is not very easy. Symptoms can be the same as in adults, but most of the time they are more acute.

In most cases, signs suggestive of helminthic invasion in children are:

• Fast weight loss. With a running image, such a manifestation can lead to a delay in physical development;
• Deterioration of hair and nails. It occurs due to a long-term deficiency of nutrients and vitamins caused by a violation of the absorption of digested food in the intestine.
• Sleep disorders. The pathology can cause the child to wake up more often at night, cry, turn around and talk in a dream.
• Irritability. Intoxication of the nervous system and health problems can affect the emotional state of the child, cause increased excitability, capriciousness, crying, etc.
• The desire to constantly scratch the anus. Children do not control external manifestations, so this symptom often helps to understand the cause of diseases and physical changes.

Some parents tend to give their children broad-spectrum antiparasitic drugs for prevention, but experts do not recommend doing so, as most of these drugs are quite difficult to tolerate. It is best to first understand whether the child is infected and what kind of treatment they need, as therapy for different types of worms is significantly different and not always effective for helminths from other groups.