One of the varieties of worms that parasitize in the human body are worms or, in other words, helminths. These parasites have an extraordinary ability to live and multiply very quickly 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 danger and severity of these parasites, while worm-induced diseases 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 think that in order not to get infected with worms, it is enough to wash your hands more often and follow the general rules of hygiene. But is not so. Almost 70% of the world's population is a carrier 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 field of medicine. This is due to the fact that the disease has practically no noticeable symptoms and signs.
There are several of the most common signs that can indicate that parasites have appeared in the body:
- A person gets tired quickly, often shows aggression and anger for no apparent reason. Patients are often severely depressed. These people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- Pain and discomfort and rumbling, swelling and flatulence often occur in the patient's abdomen. Sick people lose their appetite and lose weight quickly. Or maybe vice versa: Patients have an excessively strong appetite and cannot get enough food. Constipation or diarrhea are common.
- Due to the fact that helminths feed on the blood of their "owner", the patient often develops symptoms such as anemia or anemia.
- Helminth 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 exhibits at least one of these signs, this should alert him and cause an urgent appeal to a medical institution.
The main route of entry of helminths into the body is the gastrointestinal tract, along with food or drink. Parasitologists distinguish the following main ways of parasite infestation:
- Helminthiasis. Parasites enter the patient's body through the drink or soil. This can be direct contact with animals or the ingestion of fly eggs laid on food or fruit and vegetables.
- Contact. This route of parasite infection is likely through contact with an already infected person.
- Biohelminthiasis. In this case, parasites enter the body due to the consumption of poorly cooked meat of animals, poultry or fish.
- Insect bites. Mosquitoes are one of the most common vectors of worms. At the same time, biting a sick and healthy person, the mosquito infects the second with worms.
From the foregoing, it follows that there are many ways that can cause worm infection. 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 some 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 worm types.
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 necessary properties to destroy a large number of pest species. Furthermore, the natural intestinal immunity of man should not be underestimated.
Intestinal microflora, enzymes, blood cells - these are those tireless fighters against worms. It is these natural barriers that are designed to protect our body from parasites. But, as soon as this armor weakens, our body begins to be actively attacked by various types of worms.
To know exactly how to deal with pests, you need to know their varieties and characteristics. By classifying the worms, there are three main major groups:
- Nematodes. Representatives of this group are also called nematodes and have more than 24 thousand species of parasites. A distinctive feature of nematodes is their shape, which is round in cross section. They have a long and elongated body, both ends are pointed. Among the most common varieties of this type of parasite are roundworms, whipworms, pinworms and trichina.
- Tapeworms. Among the most distinctive features of the life cycle of this type of parasite is the fact that they have an intermediate "host", which is an animal or a fish. Eating undercooked or raw fish or animal meat has a nearly 100% chance of getting tapeworms. The most common representatives of this species are broad tapeworm, bovine tapeworm, dwarf tapeworm, etc.
- suckers. Representatives of this group have a flat leaf-shaped body, up to 1. 5 - 2 m long. At one end of the tal there are two suckers, with the help of which pests are attached to the substrate. As a rule, flukes 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, dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, etc. ) are quite similar to the symptoms of other diseases.
In addition, most often the symptoms of the presence of helminths in the patient's body are a banal allergy. There are often 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 has been unsuccessfully treated for dysbiosis for a long time.
Worms: symptoms in adults, treatment: a question that has worried our society for more than a hundred years. One of the most common and frequently used methods of determining helminthiasis in adults is the analysis of feces for helminth eggs.
Unfortunately, the effectiveness rate 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 spawning by worms. For example, consider nematodes. They lay eggs mainly in the morning (at 4 - 5 o'clock). This means that the feces taken for analysis in the evening will not show the presence of worm eggs in it.
Often parasitologists use such a method as enterobiasis. The essence of this technique is that a curettage is taken from the patient in the anal canal. Unfortunately, this method is also not very effective.
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 the analysis and the period of excretion of the cyst do not coincide.
Some experts use a specially designed test, answering questions of which about 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient can be established. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itchy in the anus?
- If there is a rash on the skin.
- You feel nauseous in the morning.
- You suffer from sleep disturbances.
- Do you have a bad taste 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, this may indicate the presence of helminths in the body of an adult.
Modern medicine suggests using a method such as testing with an ultraviolet skin scanner. Unfortunately, this method of diagnosing helminthiasis is not often used. This is due to the fact that the equipment for conducting it (ultraviolet skin scanner) is quite expensive, and not every medical institution can afford to buy it.
It is possible to determine the presence in the feces of a person not only of cysts of worms, but also of parts of their 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 prescribe an x-ray and laboratory examination of the patient's sputum.
Using computed tomography or ultrasound, parasitologists can easily determine the presence of parasites in a patient's organs such as the liver or brain.
A complete blood count or immunoassay will help 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 aggravates the clinical picture and the 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 a rather difficult task. For example, some diseases caused by helminths are similar to cancer such as alveococosis. Other types of diseases caused by tapeworms or echinococci can only be treated with surgery.
The third type of disease cannot be cured 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 has been established.
The complexity of the treatment lies in the fact that anthelmintic drugs destroy only the adults, and the larva and eggs remain in the human body and continue to parasitize there.
All drugs used to destroy worms can be conditionally divided into the following groups:
- Means which include mebendazole. This group of medicines is most often used in the treatment of diseases such as ascariasis, teniasis, echinococcosis, alveococcosis, capillary coccosis, mixed-type helminthiasis, etc.
- Preparations that contain diethylcarbamazine. Basically, these funds have shown excellent results in the treatment of diseases affecting the human lymphatic system, the fiber located under the skin and eye tissues.
- Means, the active ingredient of which is levamisole. Such means are usually used to treat non-kotorosis, enterobiasis, trichostrogillosis, trichocephalosis, etc.
- Preparations which include Albendazole. It is mainly used for the treatment of cysticercosis and ascariasis.
In no case should you forget that self-medication is not recommended when helminthiasis is detected. This can lead to complications and aggravation 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.
To get a positive treatment, you need to contact a doctor whose specialization is parasitology. Also, a prerequisite for treatment is strict adherence to the recommendations of doctors.
Such parasites of the human body as worms are extremely dangerous for human health. In order for the treatment process to be the most effective, parasitologists are making every effort 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 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 being developed. It is recommended to strictly adhere to the instructions of parasitologists.