Worms in humans, whose symptoms and treatment will be requested by a doctor, in the human body are caused by two types of worms - round (nematodes) and flat (worms and tapeworms). Each of the parasites causes significant damage to the body, especially if proper treatment is not provided in time.
Be sure to wash your hands when you get home, and also wash vegetables or fruits in a stream of warm or hot water, as this is where the parasite eggs are likely to be found. Products such as fish or cattle meat must undergo heat treatment. Under the action of high temperature, the meat gets rid of the eggs of various helminths and can be suitable for eating.
Varieties of roundworms
Pinworms are small, gray-white parasitic worms that trigger enterobiasis.
Such parasites enter the human body in the following ways:
- food (through the oral cavity);
- through dirty/unwashed hands.
Pinworm eggs can be found in unwashed fruits or vegetables or in the fur of a sick animal. Children who scratch itchy areas of skin and later swallow eggs (for example, along with contaminated food) are more likely to become infected with enterobiasis. It takes two weeks for pinworm larvae to develop in the digestive tract environment, and after full development, a complete worm lives in all parts of the large intestine.
Trichinella - these parasites have round bodies no more than 5 mm in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Larvae and eggs prefer to be in poorly fried meat (boar, pork, bear meat). In the human body, Trichinella takes up to 4 days to mature and its life cycle is 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal walls and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Roundworms are representatives of large sizes, with a spindle shape with a red-yellow tint. Males of this species reach a size of 15-25 cm, and females - up to 40 cm. Their body lacks adaptations for attachment to the intestine, they just independently move the food mass through the intestines.
You can become infected with roundworms by swallowing mature eggs while eating unwashed vegetables or fruits, in which the smallest particles of soil remain. Once the eggs enter the body's internal environment, adult larvae hatch from them, terrorizing the intestinal walls. Through the bloodstream, the parasites can reach the heart muscle and, later, the lungs.
With this alone, the cycle of travel through the body does not end, because the larva moves through the respiratory tract to the mouth.
By swallowing the parasite again, the organism already creates a favorable environment for its development.
The route of a full-fledged worm will pass through the small intestine. Their life cycle 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 they come out along with the feces and develop under environmental conditions. An already mature larva, whose body is oblong and does not exceed the limits of 5-15 mm. enters the human body with food.
These parasites have round bodies not exceeding 5 millimeters in length and excite trichinosis in the body. Larvae with eggs are found in under-fried meats (boar, pork, bear meat).
In the human body, Trichinella takes a maximum of 4 days to become an adult, and its life cycle does not exceed 40 days. The main purpose of this type of worm is to enter the bloodstream through the intestinal walls and settle in the muscles. In addition, the muscles of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems are often affected.
Necator/Hookworm. The connection between these parasites is direct, in connection with the diseases caused and biological signals. They live in the duodenum and, due to their small size (10-15 mm), move freely in their environment.
Larvae can enter the body only through the skin if a person has been in contact with contaminated soil. Another target for worms is the lungs along with the digestive tract. They feed only on the blood that comes out of the pricked blood vessels. As a result of the violent activity of these parasites, blood clotting is disturbed. Adults consume blood in the range of 0. 1-0. 35 ml per day.
Varieties of worms
wide range. The length of the parasite's body, which is 10-20 meters, deserves attention.
The parasite originates in freshwater fish and crayfish, the larvae enter eggs and fish fillets.
The formation of an adult worm takes a maximum of 25 days, and then a person becomes ill with diphyllobothriasis (the digestive tract is disturbed, vitamin B deficiency).
The liver fluke is a flat worm, reaching a size of 10-20 mm, and there is a second name for this parasite - cat fluke. In 50% of cases of infection, residents who have consumed infected fish (carp, crucia carp, sea bream, cockroach) suffer. Fish are infected with liver flukes through an ingested snail that has already consumed freshwater helminth eggs.
To clean the fish from the parasite, heat treatment is needed, otherwise the larva will enter the internal environment of the body, damaging the gallbladder with the intestines. Signs of the acute phase of the development of helminthiasis in humans are a feeling of nausea, turning into vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen, allergic reactions, muscle spasm. The parasite creates irreversible changes in the body, and even after its expulsion from the patients' body, all sorts of inflammation and disorders are sure to occur.
Pork/beef tapeworm. The body length of the parasite is 5-6 meters, and its larvae hide in the meat of large animals (pigs, cattle). The disease aroused by these helminths is called taeniasis and teniarinhoz.
The larvae of both tapeworm species, the Finns, are whitish vesicles attached to the walls of the small intestine. To arrive and form an adult, the parasite needs 3 months, and every day the worm develops. The total number of segments reaches 2, 000, the end of which freely "grooves" the large intestine.
Then the worms leave the body along with the feces through the anus. The most common and obvious symptom of helminthiasis is a disturbed digestive tract, as well as the ingestion of food in large volumes, and the patient does not gain weight visually.
Echinococcus. In this case, a person acts as an intermediate host, as the latter are wolves, cats, dogs. Animals can become infected through direct contact with contaminated objects or people. As soon as the eggs of the parasite enter the intestine, larvae with six hooks immediately develop, which are called oncospheres in medicine.
The worm's favorite habitat is the lungs and liver, and the larva becomes an echinococcal cyst, increasing in size. All tissues close to it undergo rapid destruction.
Doctors often miss echinococcosis and mistake it for a malignant or benign formation. In addition to squeezing blood vessels and internal organs, echinococcus cyst ruptures are common.
If this happens, not only does toxic shock immediately occur in the body, but a ruptured cyst causes several new ones to form.
The last type of parasite is the alveococci, in the medical literature they are referred to as echinococci. It is this worm that awakens a terrible disease that causes proportionate damage to cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. The worm's oncospheres enter the intestines, then the embryos hatch from the eggs and begin to destroy the intestinal walls. After the walls are punctured, the parasite enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body.
Most often, as mentioned earlier, alveococci terrorize the liver, where the larva gradually grows. In the process of development, the larvocyst is formed in the worms - an aggressive formation that is rapidly increasing in size (a multi-chambered vesicle, gradually growing). These vesicles enter liver cells, following the same principle as cancer metastases.
Nearby tissues feel a violation of blood flow, and subsequently necrotic changes occur in them. Fibrous nodules with multichamber blisters are formed in nearby structures and can remain in the human body for several years. That is why doctors, upon detecting this parasite, resort to surgical intervention.
Note
Modern science knows about 280 species of worms. It is these microorganisms that can parasitize and develop in a variety of tissues and organs of the human body.
Every year, these worms in humans, whose symptoms and treatment are determined by the doctor, affect the organs and tissues of about 15 million people, and most, to be more precise, 80% of them are children.
How you can get worms:
- The use of meat dishes with poor heat treatment or raw meat in general. Thus, beef is the tapeworm habitat, and pork carries the tapeworm from pork.
- 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 food, dishes with contaminated water. The risk is especially high when outdoors.
- Soil can also cause worms to appear. Because it may contain animal or human feces. But how do worms get into the human body? The answer is simple - through unwashed hands after working in the garden or outdoor recreation.
Also, you can become infected through direct contact with a person who has helminthiasis. That is, the infection occurs through dishes, bedding or personal hygiene items.
If the case is completely neglected and the parasitic infection is in the acute phase of its development, doctors prescribe detoxification and desensitization therapy. And if the disease is very difficult, glucocorticoids are prescribed.
Speaking of specific therapy, it takes into account the nature of the pathogen and involves special chemotherapeutic agents of an anthelmintic nature.
In addition, patients are advised to take various antihistamines. At the end of the treatment, you will need to take a course of probiotics. All this is necessary to restore the intestinal microflora. In the treatment process, the patient must adhere to a special diet, which consists of easily digestible foods with a minimum fat content.
At the time of therapy, it is very important to adhere to impeccable personal hygiene, otherwise there is a risk of reinfection.
In addition, all family members, as well as other people who have been in constant and close contact with the patient, should undergo anthelmintic treatment.
Signs of worms in humans: symptoms in children and adults
Signs of worms in humans, whose symptoms can be the same, can be observed acutely, both in adults and children:
- Irrational increase in appetite and profuse salivation, and at the same time weight is quickly lost.
- Another variant of the development of symptoms can also occur - the appetite disappears, after eating the person feels sick.
- Perhaps the onset of headaches and dizziness.
- Loose stools or constipation can also indicate the presence of worms.
- Abdominal pain.
- Sudden onset of an allergy with incomprehensible symptoms.
- Weakening of hair and nails (their fragility increases due to lack of iron and vitamin B12).
- Due to the weakening of the immune system, various inflammations appear in the nasopharynx and genital area.
If the body is heavily infected with worms, a large amount of toxic substances that appear due to the vital activity of helminths are released into human blood. This circumstance can greatly affect the child's health. First, the nervous system suffers. Therefore, if a child has sudden aggression, irritability, insomnia, and other signs of nervous disorders, the child should be checked for helminths.
Even if there are no pronounced signs and there are no functional disorders, worms can be present in the human body and it is necessary to have regular examinations to identify them.
It often happens that, after preventive vaccinations, a child develops an allergic reaction due to the presence in the body of toxic substances secreted by helminths.
In fact, determining whether or not there are worms based on surface signs alone is quite a difficult task. After all, the symptoms presented can be a sign of another disease. This task is especially difficult for pregnant women. Since all the above signs of worms in humans, the symptoms of which were described above, in pregnant women appear due to the process itself.
For this reason, the signs of helminth infection in pregnant women can be distinguished by such symptoms: itching in the anus and burning in the vaginal area, which increase at night, weight loss, fatigue, fever.
To diagnose helminth infection, several measures are carried out, including the following procedures:
- Collect anamnesis to identify possible sources of infection.
- The study of stool and blood samples, rectal and perianal mucus, muscle tissue, sputum, and bile in the laboratory. When carrying out these activities, signs of the presence of helminths in the body (eggs or the worms themselves, as well as their parts) can be detected. It is also worth noting that an increased number of eosinophils can serve as a sign of the presence of worms in the body.
- Serological studies (ELISA, RSK, etc. ) allow detecting the presence of parasites in the larval stage or helminths that live in muscle tissues.
- To determine the presence of parasites that affect the liver, ultrasound, computed tomography and endoscopy are prescribed.
Worms in the human liver: symptoms by type of worm
Worms in the human liver, whose symptoms largely depend on the type of helminths, can also migrate to other organs.
The appearance of primary signs of worm infection does not appear immediately. In many ways, the timing of the appearance of distinctive features depends on the species composition of the parasites. Thus, the presence of ascaris in almost two to three days is manifested by a deterioration in the general condition of a person.
The first symptoms of infection with other types of helminths in most cases begin to appear only two to three weeks after the end of the incubation period. There are such parasites (eg, filariasis) in which the incubation period exceeds the six-month mark.
The problem with determining the presence of helminths in the human body is that in the case of primary infection with a small number of worms or a single individual, there are practically no visual signs. Symptoms begin to appear only after intensive reproduction of helminths or when they reach large sizes (large tapeworm, roundworm).
It is more reliably possible to determine the worm infection. In their presence, a characteristic itching appears in the anus, which intensifies at night. Basically, the itching occurs within a few days, then goes away for about two weeks and starts again.
When infected with helminths such as trichuriasis, ankylostomidosis, schistosomiasis, diphyllobothriasis, beriberi and anemia develop.
The appearance of symptoms of roundworm infection largely depends on the period of development of the parasites. Therefore, if they are in the early stage of development, the larvae move through the blood to almost all internal organs, and the following symptoms of the disease appear: subfebrile temperature, weakness, cough with purulent sputum, volatile infiltrates are visible on radiographs of the lungs, which later disappear.
With severe infection, bronchitis and pneumonia can develop. With the development of parasites, there is a violation of the functions of the gastrointestinal tract.
Trichinosis - mainly manifests with muscle tissue pain, fever and swelling.
These worms in the human liver, the symptoms of which are manifested by a jaundiced complexion such as fascioliasis, opisthorchiasis, clonorchiasis, reveal their presence with an increase in the spleen and liver and other serious disorders of the body.
Almost all types of worms cause disturbances of the central nervous system, while the sick person experiences severe headaches and fatigue, a generally calm person becomes irritable and impatient, and irrational attacks of aggression may appear.