Numerous modern medical studies show that helminths in humans are the cause of many diseases. The penetration of parasites into the body is not felt immediately, and the symptoms are often masked by other diseases. Many people have been treated for years for diseases of the liver, kidneys, gallbladder, looking for the causes of the development of allergic diseases. But they don't even think about checking the body for the presence of a helminth invasion.
Methods of infection
There are about 250 types of helminths in nature. In addition, each parasite causes a certain ailment with characteristic symptoms. The problem is widespread in both children and adults.
There are several reasons for the defeat:
- Contact method: Some types of parasites, including pinworms, are transmitted from person to person by shaking hands.
- Nutrition: Eating raw or semi-raw meat, poor-quality fish infected with helminths causes them to enter the body.
- Through soil and water - if the earth and water are infected with helminths, which are excreted in the feces of people or animals with helminthiasis.
- Contact with animals infected with helminth infestation.
- Transfer of worm eggs from insects to food.
- Insect bites can carry certain types of parasites in the body.
Doctors note that the main mechanism of spread is considered to be oral-fecal. In other words, human helminths are affected by eating contaminated food and water.
Furthermore, often the reason for the spread is the lack of basic hygiene. After being outdoors, and especially after working with the earth, you should wash your hands thoroughly.
Children are particularly susceptible to helminth invasion. Walking on the street, contact with pets leads to the rapid spread of the problem. Pinworm infection is very simple. As the female pinworm is able to exit the intestine at night to lay eggs near the anus, which causes severe itching in the baby. Children involuntarily scratch this place and this leads to contamination of hands and feet, clothes and bed. Contact with children's objects, furniture, which the child might handle with unwashed hands, doorknobs and plumbing fixtures, is the cause of infection for everyone living in the apartment.
How to identify the problem?
Helminths in humans can cause different symptoms, therefore, different treatment is prescribed.
But there are also typical signs that are most often found in people infected with parasites:
- noticeable weight loss;
- anemia;
- severe itching in the anus;
- lack of appetite;
- constant fatigue.
For these symptoms, most people immediately begin to suspect a worm infection.
But often helminths in humans cause other symptoms, which are more reminiscent of the signs of other diseases.
- Problems with the gastrointestinal tract - recurrent nausea, diarrhea or vomiting, flatulence and abdominal pain can speak not of stomach problems, but of worm infection. This is often the case if parasites are found in the intestines. Symptoms can be severe or mild. But in any case, they bring great inconvenience to a person.
- General malaise and negative effects on the nervous system. This condition is caused by toxins which are capable of releasing parasites in the human body. Gradual intoxication leads to frequent headaches, dizziness, mild nausea. With a strong infection, there is a possibility of fever and joint pain. Due to the worms in the human body, the amount of vitamins and nutrients is drastically reduced. As a result, this leads to sleepiness, constant fatigue and nervousness. Children are particularly sensitive: they become capricious and irritable, they sleep restlessly at night, they become inattentive.
- Allergic reactions on the skin: the waste products of parasites desensitize the body and therefore proteins that are similar to them when ingested are perceived as allergens. So, various options for allergies: rashes, hives, constant itching. Symptoms of helminths also include allergic rhinitis and cough.
- Poor immunity, which leads to the frequent manifestation of infectious diseases. The problem arises against the background of a decrease in the amount of vitamins and nutrients in the body.
According to popular belief, the presence of worms in the body can also be determined by snoring or grinding the teeth during sleep. Such methods of determination still exist, but medicine claims that these are only guesses. Snoring and grinding of the teeth can be caused by many other reasons.
Where do parasites live?
Human helminths can inhabit the body in different places.
Depending on this, there are:
- Cavitary: colonizes the small and large intestine. There are about a hundred species of such worms.
- Tissue: occupies tissues and organs. They can be found in the liver, muscles, lungs, brain, lymphatic vessels.
Some types of worms, such as roundworms, are both cavity and tissue. In the form of larvae they can infect organs, and worms infect the intestines.
Helminth diagnostics
To determine helminthiasis, modern medicine uses several methods:
- examine a person's feces for an ovarian leaf;
- make a curettage in the anus;
- scraping from the vagina in girls;
- immunological tests for antibodies.
In addition, the doctor may send urine and blood, bile and sputum tests. In case of severe infection, ultrasound, biopsy, computed tomography are used. These research methods help determine the location of parasite colonies in the human body.
How to get rid of helminthiasis?
In the arsenal of doctors today there are many drugs that can quickly and successfully cope with the problem of damage to the human body by parasites. But it is important to make the right diagnosis to find the optimal drug. Only then will the treatment be successful.
Depending on the type of parasites, they are prescribed:
- Mebendazole-based drugs are the best option for enterobiasis infection, trichocephalosis.
- Medicines with diethylcarbamazine are recommended for the treatment of heartworm disease.
- Levamisole tablets are often prescribed by doctors to patients when the body is infected with trichocephalosis, ascariasis, toxoplasmosis.
- Preparations with albendazole - have proven to be effective in cysticercosis and echinococcosis.
- Pills with Praziquantel - they will help to cope with cestodosis, schistosomiasis, trimodosis.
Most often, it is possible to cope with helminthiasis by prescribing pills. But in case of reinfection or exacerbations, doctors recommend more serious treatment, which includes injections of ascorbic acid, vitamin B6 or calcium gluconate, as well as drugs for hypertension and means to relieve fever.
Prevention measures
It is so easy to get infected with worms. And it takes a long time to get rid of parasites. In order not to undergo numerous studies and not to poison the body with servings of drugs to remove helminths, it is better to prevent the appearance of a problem.
In addition, prevention is not difficult:
- Observe the basic rules of personal hygiene: wash your hands after a walk, use individual hygiene items.
- Handle meat and fish correctly.
- Wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly before eating.
- Pet owners should treat their pet for worms several times a year. Animals also require timely vaccination.
- With frequent trips to nature, contact with the soil does not hurt once a year to carry out drug prophylaxis of parasites.
- Children are recommended to take drug prophylaxis twice a year.
Literally each of us has been a carrier of worms at least once in our life. In fact, no person is insured against infection, regardless of their status and position. This problem does not lead to death, but it creates great discomfort. Therefore, the sooner parasites are noticed, the faster the patient will undergo competent treatment and forget about the unpleasant problem.