Numerous studies in modern medicine prove that helminths in humans are the cause of many diseases. The infiltration of parasites into the body is not immediately felt and the symptoms are often disguised as other diseases. Many people have been dealing with liver, kidney and gallbladder diseases for years, looking for the causes of allergic diseases. But they don’t even think about controlling the body for the presence of a helminthic invasion.
Methods of infection
There are about 250 types of helminths in nature. In addition, each parasite causes a certain disease with characteristic symptoms. The problem is widespread in both children and adults.
There are several reasons for the defeat:
- Method of contact - certain types of parasites, including dumplings, spread from person to person by handshake.
- Nutrition - Consumption of raw or semi-raw meat, poor quality fish infected with helminths enter the body.
- Through soil and water - if the land and water are infected with worms that are excreted in the faeces of people or animals with helminthiasis.
- Contact with animals infected with helminthic infection.
- Transmission of worm eggs by insects into food.
- Insect bites can introduce certain types of parasites into the body.
Doctors note that the main mechanism of spread is oral-fecal. In other words, human helminths are affected by the consumption of contaminated food and water.
The spread is often also due to a lack of basic hygiene. Wash hands thoroughly after standing outdoors and especially after working with soil.
Children are particularly susceptible to helminthic invasion. Walking on the street, contact with pets leads to a rapid spread of the problem. Infection with dumplings is very simple. Because the female pinworm is able to get out of the gut at night to lay eggs near the anus, causing severe itching in the child. Children involuntarily scratch this place and this leads to dirt on the hands and feet, clothes and bed. Contact with children's belongings and furniture, which could be handled with unwashed hands, can infect the baby, the handles, the plumbing, everyone who lives in the apartment.
How to identify the problem?
Human helminths can cause different symptoms and therefore require different treatments.
But there are also typical signs that are most common in people infected with parasites:
- noticeable weight loss;
- anemia;
- severe itching in the anus;
- anorexia;
- constant fatigue.
Most people immediately suspect a worm infection for these symptoms.
But in humans, helminths often cause other symptoms that are more reminiscent of signs of other diseases.
- Gastrointestinal problems - recurrent nausea, diarrhea or vomiting, bloating and abdominal pain may not be about stomach problems but from an infection caused by worms. This often occurs when parasites are found in the intestines. Symptoms may be severe or mild. But in any case, they cause great inconvenience to man.
- General malaise and adverse effects on the nervous system. This condition is caused by toxins that are able to release parasites in the human body. Gradual intoxication leads to frequent headaches, dizziness, and mild nausea. In case of severe infection, fever and joint pain may occur. Due to worms in the human body, the amount of vitamins and nutrients is sharply reduced. As a result, it leads to drowsiness, constant fatigue and nervousness. Children are particularly sensitive - capricious and irritable, sleep restlessly at night, become inattentive.
- Allergic reactions on the skin - the waste products of parasites desensitize the body, so proteins like them are considered allergen if swallowed. Therefore, different options for allergies - skin rashes, hives, constant itching. Symptoms of helminths include even allergic rhinitis and cough.
- Weak immunity, which leads to frequent manifestations of infectious diseases. The problem is caused by a decrease in the amount of vitamins and nutrients in the body.
It is widely believed that snoring or gnashing of teeth during sleep can detect the presence of worms in the body. Such methods of determination still exist, but medicine claims that these are only assumptions. Snoring and gnashing of teeth can be caused by a number of other reasons.
Where do parasites live?
Human helminths can live in different places in the body.
Depending on this, they are:
- Cavitary - colonizes the small and large intestines. There are about a hundred such worms.
- Tissue - occupies tissues and organs. They are found in the liver, muscles, lungs, brain, lymphatics.
Certain types of worms, such as roundworms, cavities, and tissues, are also present. They can infect organs in the form of larvae and worms can infect intestines.
Diagnosis of helminth samples
Modern medicine uses a number of methods to diagnose helminthiasis:
- examine the man's feces for the presence of an ovary;
- scrape in the anus;
- scraping the vagina in girls;
- immunological tests for the detection of antibodies.
In addition, your doctor may send you for urine and blood tests, bile and sputum tests. In case of severe infection, ultrasound, biopsy and computed tomography are used. These research methods help to determine the location of parasitic colonies in the human body.
How to get rid of helminthiasis?
There are many medicines in the arsenal of doctors today that can cope quickly and successfully with damage to the human body caused 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 parasite, the following is prescribed:
- Mebendazole-based drugs are the best solution for the infection of enterobiasis, trichocephalosis.
- Medicines containing diethylcarbamazine are recommended for the treatment of filariasis.
- Levamisole tablets are often prescribed by doctors to patients who have been infected with trichocephalosis, ascariasis, or toxoplasmosis.
- Albendazole formulations have been shown to be effective in cysticercosis and echinococcosis.
- Praziquantel tablets - help cure cestodosis, schistosomiasis and trimodosis.
The most common way to deal with helminthiasis is to prescribe tablets. However, in case of re-infection or exacerbation, doctors recommend more serious treatment, which includes injections of ascorbic acid, vitamin B6, or calcium gluconate, as well as antihypertensive drugs and antipyretics.
Preventive measures
It is very easy to get infected with worms. And it takes a long time to get rid of the parasites. In order not to go through a number of tests and not to poison the body with doses of drugs to remove helminths, it is better to prevent the problem from appearing.
In addition, prevention is not difficult:
- Follow the basic rules of personal hygiene - wash your hands after walking, use personal hygiene items.
- Handle meat and fish properly.
- Wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly before eating.
- Pet owners have to treat their pet against worms several times a year. Animals also require timely vaccination.
- Frequent trips to nature, contact with the soil does not hurt once a year to prevent parasites.
- Pediatric prophylaxis is recommended twice a year for children.
We were literally all carriers of worms at least once in our lives. Moreover, no one, regardless of their status or position, is insured against infection. This problem does not lead to death, but it causes great inconvenience. Therefore, the sooner the parasites are detected, the faster the patient goes through competent treatment and forgets about the unpleasant problem.