One of the varieties of worms that parasitize the human body are worms or, in other words, helminths. These parasites have an incredible ability to live and multiply extremely quickly in a wide variety of internal organs: liver and kidneys, brain and muscle tissue, eyes and intestines.
Much to our dismay, many of us simply underestimate the danger and severity of these parasites, when diseases caused by worms are found in different parts of the planet. That is why such a topic as worms: symptoms in adult patients are extremely important to everyone.
Worms: causes and types
Many of us believe that in order not to get infected with worms, it is enough to wash our hands more often and follow the general rules of hygiene. But this is not the case. Almost 70% of the world's population are carriers of helminths.
It is quite difficult to detect the presence of worms in the body of an adult if you are not a doctor who specializes in this area of medicine. This is due to the fact that the disease has hardly any obvious symptoms or signs.
There are several of the most common signs that can indicate that parasites have appeared in the body:
- A person gets tired quickly, he often shows aggression and anger for no apparent reason. Patients are often severely depressed. These people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- In the patient's abdomen, pain and discomfort and rumbling, bloating and gas often occur. Sick people lose their appetite and lose weight quickly. Or maybe vice versa - patients have an excessively strong appetite and cannot eat enough. Constipation or diarrhea are common.
- Because helminths feed on the blood of their "owner", the patient often develops symptoms such as anemia or anemia.
- Carriers of helminths often suffer from all kinds of rashes on the surface of the skin or mucous membranes, and also develop various allergic reactions.
If a person exhibits at least one of these signs, it should alert them and cause an urgent call to a medical facility.
The main route of entry for helminths into the body is through the gastrointestinal tract, as well as through food or drink. Parasitologists distinguish the following main modes of parasite infestation:
- Helminthiasis. Parasites enter the patient's body through drink or soil. It could be direct contact with animals or the ingestion of eggs of flies laid on food or fruits and vegetables.
- Contact. This route of parasite infection is likely through contact with an already infected person.
- Biohelminthiasis. In this case, the parasites enter the body due to the consumption of undercooked animal, poultry or fish meat.
- Insect bites. Mosquitoes are one of the most common vectors of worms. While biting a sick and healthy person, the mosquito infects the second with worms.
From the above, it follows that there are many ways that can cause infection with worms. But one of the most common and dangerous methods is the fecal-oral route (with food and water).
The human body is a fairly complex mechanism that has specific barriers that prevent the entry and development of helminths in the body.
One of the first barriers is saliva, which contains many different enzymes. It is these enzymes that have a unique ability to negatively affect the vast majority of types of worms.
If the worms still manage to survive, they enter the stomach. But even here a rather unpleasant surprise awaits them - hydrochloric acid and various enzymes that have all the properties necessary to destroy a large number of species of parasites. In addition, the natural intestinal immunity of humans should not be underestimated.
Gut microflora, enzymes, blood cells - these are the tireless fighters against worms. It is these natural barriers that are designed to protect our bodies from parasites. But, as soon as this armor weakens, our body begins to be actively attacked by various types of worms.
In order to know exactly how to treat pests, you need to know their varieties and characteristics. In classifying worms, there are three major main groups:
- Roundworms. Representatives of this group are also called nematodes and have more than 24, 000 species of parasites. A distinctive feature of roundworms is their shape, which is round in cross section. They have a long, elongated body, both ends of which are pointed. Among the most common varieties of this type of parasite are roundworms, whipworms, pinworms and trichina.
- Tapeworms. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the life cycle of this type of parasite is the fact that it has an intermediate "host", which is an animal or a fish. Eating undercooked or raw animal or fish meat has an almost 100% chance of contracting tapeworms. The most common representatives of this species are broad tapeworm, bovine tapeworm, dwarf tapeworm, etc.
- Nozzles. Representatives of this group have a flat leaf-shaped body, up to 1. 5-2 m in length, at one end of the tal there are two suckers, with the help of which the pests are attached to the substrate. Typically, fluke affects the intestines, muscle tissue, or the human nervous system.
Diagnosing worms in humans
It is quite difficult to determine the presence of worms in the body of an adult. This is due to the fact that the symptoms of helminthiasis (headache, lack of appetite, fever, dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, etc. ) are quite similar to the symptoms of other diseases.
In addition, quite often the symptoms of the presence of helminths in the patient's body are a banal allergy. Often there are cases when a parasitologist with a high degree of probability suspects that the patient has worms, laboratory tests do not confirm this, and the patient was unsuccessfully treated for dysbiosis for a long time.
Worms: symptoms in adults, treatment, a question that has worried our society for over a hundred years. One of the most common and frequently used methods of determining helminthiasis in adults is stool testing for helminth eggs.
Unfortunately, the percentage of effectiveness of this method is only 20%. And in the remaining 80% of patients, it is not possible to diagnose the presence of helminths in the body. The low efficiency of such an analysis lies in the fact that specialists do not take into account such a fact as the period of laying of worms. As an example, consider roundworms. They lay eggs mainly in the morning (at 4 - 5 hours). This means that feces taken for analysis in the evening will not show the presence of worm eggs.
Parasitologists often use a method such as enterobiasis. The essence of this technique is that a scraping is taken from the patient in the anal canal. This method, unfortunately, is not very effective either.
The patient's blood test also does not give high rates of establishing the presence of helminths. In both cases, the reason is the same - the time of analysis and the period of cyst excretion does not coincide.
Some experts use a specially designed test, answering questions about which it is possible to establish about 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itchy in your anus?
- If there is a rash on the skin.
- Do you have nausea in the morning.
- You have trouble sleeping.
- Do you have bitterness in your mouth?
- Are your lymph nodes swollen?
- Do you notice pain in the muscle area?
If the patient gives a positive answer to 7 questions, it may indicate the presence of helminths in the body of an adult.
Modern medicine suggests using such a method as the test with an ultraviolet skin scanner. Unfortunately, this method of diagnosing helminthiasis is not often used. This is because the equipment to perform it (ultraviolet skin scanner) is quite expensive, and not all medical institutions can afford to buy it.
It is possible to determine the presence in the stool of a person not only of worm cysts, but also parts of his body, using a method such as a histological coprogram. The essence of this method is to examine several layers of feces under an electron microscope. This method allows parasitologists to obtain the most accurate results.
To determine the presence of worms in the patient's lungs, doctors first of all order an X-ray, as well as a laboratory examination of the patient's sputum.
Using computed tomography or ultrasound, parasitologists can easily determine the presence of parasites in patient organs such as the liver or brain.
A complete blood count or immunological tests will identify the presence of parasites in the patient's blood. To determine whether a patient has helminthiasis, specialists use several methods.
Unfortunately, none of them can give the most reliable result. In this regard, there are cases when the treatment process does not give positive results, but only worsens the clinical picture and general condition of the patient.
The most effective drugs for the treatment of different types of worms
Worms in adults, symptoms and treatment - these two concepts are closely related and have a direct relationship.
The process of treating helminthiasis is quite a difficult task. For example, some diseases caused by helminths are similar to cancer like alveococosis. Other types of illnesses caused by tapeworms or echinococci can only be treated with surgery.
The third type of disease cannot be treated with pills. The correctly chosen method of treatment depends on how correctly the type of parasites that have settled in the body of an adult have been established.
The complexity of the treatment lies in the fact that anthelmintic drugs destroy only adults, and the larvae and eggs remain in the human body and continue to parasitize there.
All drugs used to destroy worms can be conditionally subdivided into the following groups:
- Means which include mebendazole. This group of drugs is most often used in the treatment of such diseases as ascariasis, tapeworm, echinococcosis, alveococcosis, capillary coccosis, helminthiasis of mixed type, etc.
- Preparations containing diethylcarbamazine. Basically, these funds have shown great results in the treatment of diseases that affect the human lymphatic system, the fiber located under the skin and eye tissues.
- Means, the active substance of which is levamisole. Such means are generally used to treat non-kotorosis, enterobiasis, trichostroillosis, trichocephalosis, etc.
- Preparations containing albendazole. It is mainly used for the treatment of cysticercosis and ascariasis.
It should in no way be forgotten that self-medication is not recommended in the event of detection of helminthiasis. This can lead to complications and a worsening of the clinical picture of the disease.
The main reason for this is that most anthelmintic drugs have toxic properties and require a specially designed regimen for their administration.
In order to achieve positive treatment, it is necessary to contact a health professional whose specialization is parasitology. In addition, a prerequisite for treatment is strict adherence to the recommendations of doctors.
Parasites of the human body such as worms are extremely dangerous to human health. In order for the treatment process to be as effective as possible, parasitologists strive to determine as accurately as possible to which species the parasites that have settled in the patient's body belong.
To destroy worms, doctors use a fairly long list of drugs. But self-medication is by no means recommended. For the treatment of helminthiasis, separate regimens, dosage and duration of treatment are under development. It is recommended to strictly adhere to the instructions of parasitologists.