One of the varieties of worms that parasitize the human body is the worms or, in other words, the helminths. These parasites have an amazing ability to live and multiply extremely fast in a wide variety of internal organs: liver and kidneys, brain and muscle tissue, eyes and intestines.
To our great regret, many of us simply underestimate the risk and severity of these parasites, and worm-borne diseases are found in many parts of the world. This is why such an issue as worms: the symptoms in adult patients are extremely important to everyone.
Worms: causes and species
Many of us believe that in order not to be infected by worms, it is enough to wash our hands more often and to follow general rules of hygiene. But it is not so. Almost 70% of the world's population are helminth carriers.
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 field of medicine. This is due to the fact that the disease has practically no obvious symptoms and signs.
There are several common signs that parasites may have appeared in the body:
- A person gets tired quickly, often showing aggression and anger for no apparent reason. Patients often experience severe depression. Such people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- Pain and discomfort and humming, bloating and flatulence often occur in the patient's abdomen. Sick people lose their appetite and lose weight fast. Or maybe vice versa - patients have a very strong appetite and can not get enough food. Constipation or diarrhea is common.
- Due to the fact that the helminths feed on the blood of their "owner", the patient often develops symptoms such as anemia or anemia.
- Worm carriers 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 develops at least one of these signs, this should alert them and cause an emergency call to a medical facility.
The main route of entry of helminths into the body is the gastrointestinal tract, along with food or drink. Specialist parasitologists identify the following main ways of infection with parasites:
- Helminthiasis. The parasites enter the patient's body through drink or soil. This can be direct contact with animals or the ingestion of eggs by flies that have been placed in food or fruits and vegetables.
- Contact. This route of infection with parasites is possible through contact with an already infected person.
- Biohelminthiasis. In this case, the parasites enter the body due to the consumption of badly cooked meat from animals, poultry or fish.
- Insect bites. Mosquitoes are one of the most common carriers of worms. At the same time biting a sick and healthy person, the mosquito infects the latter with worms.
From the above, it can be concluded that there are many ways that worms can be infected. But one of the most common and dangerous methods is fecal-oral (with food and water).
The human body is a rather complex mechanism that has certain specific barriers that prevent the entry and development of helminths in the body.
One of the first obstacles is saliva, which contains many different enzymes. It is these enzymes that have a unique ability to adversely affect the vast majority of worm types.
If the worms still manage to survive, they penetrate the stomach. But even here a rather unpleasant surprise awaits them - hydrochloric acid and various enzymes that have all the necessary properties to destroy a large number of species of parasites. In addition, the natural intestinal immunity of man should not be underestimated.
Intestinal microflora, enzymes, blood cells - these are these tireless fighters against worms. These natural barriers are designed to protect our body from parasites. But as soon as this armor weakens, our body begins to be actively attacked by various species of worms.
To know exactly how to deal with pests, you need to know their varieties and characteristics. When classifying worms, there are three major groups:
- Round worms. Representatives of this group are also called nematodes and have more than 24 thousand species of parasites. A feature of Roundworms is their shape, which is round in cross section. They have a long and elongated body, the two ends of which are pointed. Among the most common varieties of this type of parasite are the roundworm, the worm, the worm and the hairy.
- Movies. One of the most characteristic life cycle features of this type of parasite is the fact that they have an intermediate "host", which is an animal or a fish. Consumption of poorly cooked or raw meat of animals or fish is almost 100% likely to be infected by tapeworm. The most common representatives of this species are the wide film, the bovine film, the dwarf film, etc.
- Sucker. The representatives of this group have a flat body in the shape of a leaf, up to 1. 5 - 2 m long. At one end of the thallus there are two suction cups, with the help of which the parasites are connected to the substrate. As a rule, blisters affect the intestines, muscle tissue or the human nervous system.
Diagnosis of 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, poor appetite, fever, 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 common allergy. There are often cases where a parasitologist with a high probability suspects that the patient has worms, laboratory tests do not confirm this and the patient has been unsuccessfully treated for dysbiosis for a long time.
Worms: Symptoms in Adults, Treatment - a question that has plagued our society for over a hundred years. One of the most common and frequently used methods for determining helminthiasis in adults is the analysis of feces for helminth eggs.
Unfortunately, the efficiency 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 performance of such an analysis lies in the fact that experts do not take into account such an event as the spawning period of worms. For example, consider round worms. They lay eggs mainly in the morning (at 4-5 o'clock). This means that feces taken for analysis at night will not show the presence of worm eggs in them.
Often parasitologists use a method such as enterobiasis. The essence of this technique is that a scraping is taken from the patient into the anal canal. This method, unfortunately, is also not very effective.
The patient's blood test also does not show high rates of helminths. In both cases, the reason is the same - the time of analysis and the period of bladder excretion do not coincide.
Some specialists use a specially designed test, answering the questions of which it is possible to detect about 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itchy in your anus?
- Or there is a rash on the skin.
- You feel nauseous in the morning.
- You suffer from sleep disorders.
- Do you have bitterness in your mouth?
- Are your lymph nodes swollen?
- Do you notice pain in the muscle area?
If the patient answers 7 questions in the affirmative, this may indicate the presence of helminths in an adult's body.
Modern medicine suggests the use of such a method as the UV skin scanner test. Unfortunately, this method of diagnosing helminthiasis is not often used. This is due to the fact that the equipment for its implementation (ultraviolet skin scanner) is quite expensive and can not be purchased by any medical institution.
It is possible to determine the presence in the feces of a person not only of worm cysts, but also of parts of their body, using a method such as a histological complication. 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, first of all, doctors prescribe an x-ray, as well as a laboratory examination of the patient's sputum.
Using computed tomography or ultrasound, parasitologists can easily detect the presence of parasites in a patient's organs such as the liver or brain.
A complete blood count or immunoassay will help detect the presence of parasites in the patient's blood. To determine if a patient has helminthiasis, experts use a variety of methods.
Unfortunately, none of these can give the most reliable result. In this regard, there are cases where the treatment process does not give positive results, but only worsens the clinical picture and the general condition of the patient.
The most effective drugs for treating different types of worms
Worms in adults, symptoms and treatment - these two concepts are closely related and directly related.
The process of treating helminthiasis is quite a difficult task. For example, some diseases caused by helminths are similar to cancer such as honeycomb. Other types of diseases caused by tapeworms or echinococci can only be treated with surgery.
The third type of disease can not be treated with pills. The right treatment method depends on how well the type of parasite has settled in an adult's body.
The complexity of the treatment lies in the fact that anthelmintic drugs only kill adults and the larva and eggs remain in the human body and continue to parasitize there.
All drugs used to kill worms can be conditionally subdivided into the following groups:
- Means containing mebendazole. This group of drugs is most often used in the treatment of diseases such as ascariasis, tenacity, echinococcosis, alveolar granulation, capillary granulation, helminthiasis of the mixed type, etc.
- Preparations containing diethylcarbamazine. Basically, these chapters have shown excellent results in the treatment of diseases that affect the human lymphatic system, the fibers under the skin and the eye tissues.
- Inside, the active substance of which is Levamisole. Such means are commonly used for the treatment of non-castration, enterobiasis, hair rolling, hair loss, etc.
- Preparations containing albendazole. It is mainly used for the treatment of cysticercosis and ascariasis.
Under no circumstances should you forget that self-medication is not recommended when helminthiasis is detected. This can lead to complications and worsening of the clinical picture of the disease.
The main reason for this is that most of the anthelmintic drugs have toxic properties and require a specially designed regimen for their administration.
To achieve positive treatment, it is necessary to contact a professional doctor whose specialty is parasitology. In addition, the condition for treatment is strict adherence to the recommendations of doctors.
Such parasites of the human body as worms are extremely dangerous to human health. In order for the treatment process to be the most effective, parasitologists make every effort to determine as accurately as possible what kind of parasites have been installed in the patient's body.
To destroy the worms, doctors use a fairly large list of drugs. But self-medication is by no means recommended. For the treatment of helminthiasis, separate treatment regimens, dosage and course duration are developed. It is recommended to strictly follow the instructions of parasitologists.