One of the species of worms that parasitize the human body are worms or, in other words, 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.
Unfortunately, many of us simply underestimate the danger and severity of these parasites, while worm diseases are found in different parts of the planet. That's why such a topic as worms: the symptoms in adult patients are extremely important for 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 it's not like that. 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 specializing in this field of medicine. This is due to the fact that the disease has virtually no obvious symptoms and signs.
There are some of the most common signs that may indicate that parasites have appeared in the body:
- One gets tired quickly, often shows aggression and anger for no apparent reason. Patients are often severely depressed. Such people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- Pain and discomfort and rumbling, bloating and gas often occur in the patient's abdomen. Patients lose appetite and lose weight quickly. Or perhaps the opposite - patients have an excessive appetite and can not 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.
- Carriers of helminths often suffer from any rash on the surface of the skin or mucous membranes, and also develop various allergic reactions.
If a person shows at least one of these signs, it should warn 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 infecting with parasites:
- helminthiasis. The parasites enter the patient's body through a drink or soil. This can be direct contact with animals or the ingestion of fly eggs laid on food or fruits and vegetables.
- Contact. This route of infection with parasites is probably through contact with an already infected person.
- Biohelminthosis. In this case, the parasites enter the body due to consumption of poorly cooked meat from 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 latter with worms.
It follows from the above that there are many ways that can cause a 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 helminths from entering and developing in the body.
One of the first barriers is saliva, which contains many different enzymes. It is these enzymes that have the unique ability to adversely affect the vast majority of worm species.
If the worms still manage to survive, they penetrate the stomach. But even here they are quite unpleasant surprise - hydrochloric acid and various enzymes that have all the necessary properties to destroy a large number of parasites. In addition, man's natural intestinal immunity 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 parasites, you need to know their varieties and characteristics. Classifying worms, there are three main major groups:
- Roundworms. Representatives of this group are also called nematodes and have more than 24 thousand species of parasites. A distinctive feature of roundworms is their shape, which is round in cross section. They have a long and elongated body, both ends of which are pointed. Among the most common species of this type of parasite are roundworms, whips, pinworms and trichinae.
- Tapeworm. Among the most distinctive features of the life cycle of this species of parasite is the fact that they have an intermediate "host", which is an animal or fish. Eating poorly cooked or raw animal or fish meat has an almost 100% chance of contracting tapeworm. The most common representatives of this species are tapeworm, beef tapeworm, dwarf tapeworm and others.
- Suckers. The representatives of this group have a flat, leaf-like body, 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 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, quite often the symptoms of helminths in the patient's body are a common allergy. There are often cases when 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 - an issue that has troubled our society for more than a hundred years. One of the most common and commonly used methods for determining helminthiasis in adults is the analysis of feces for helminth eggs.
Unfortunately, the efficiency 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 experts do not take into account such a fact as the period of laying eggs by worms. Consider roundworms as an example. They lay eggs mainly in the morning (4 - 5 hours). This means that feces taken for analysis in the evening will not show the presence of worm eggs in it.
Often parasitologists use a method such as enterobiosis. The essence of this technique is that the patient is scraped into the anal canal. This method, unfortunately, is also not very effective.
The patient's blood test also does not give high levels of helminths. In both cases the reason is the same - the time of analysis and the period of cyst separation do not match.
Some experts use a specially designed test to answer questions that can detect approximately 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itching in the anus?
- Whether there is a rash on the skin.
- Do you feel nauseous in the morning.
- Do 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 gives a positive answer to 7 questions, this may indicate the presence of helminths in the body of an adult.
Modern medicine offers the use of such a method 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 its implementation (ultraviolet skin scanner) is quite expensive and not every medical institution can afford to buy it.
It is possible to determine the presence in human feces not only of worm cysts, but also of parts of their body, using a method such as histological coprogram. The essence of this method consists in examining several layers of feces under an electron microscope. This method allows parasitologists to get 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.
With the help of computed tomography or ultrasound, parasitologists can easily determine the presence of parasites in such organs of the patient as the liver or brain.
A complete blood count or immunological tests will help determine the presence of parasites in the patient's blood. Specialists use several methods to determine if a patient has helminthiasis.
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 the general condition of the patient.
The most effective drugs for the treatment of various 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, such as alveococcosis. Other diseases caused by tapeworms or echinococci can only be treated with surgery.
The third type of disease cannot be treated with pills. Properly chosen method of treatment depends on how correctly identified the type of parasites that have settled in the body of an adult.
The complexity of treatment lies in the fact that anthelmintic drugs destroy only adults, and the larva and eggs remain in the human body and continue to parasitize there.
All drugs used to kill worms can be divided into the following groups:
- Agents that include Mebendazole. This group of drugs is most often used in the treatment of diseases such as ascariasis, tenia, echinococcosis, alveococcosis, capillary coccosis, helminthiasis of mixed type and others.
- Preparations containing diethylcarbamazine. In general, these funds have shown excellent results in the treatment of diseases that affect the human lymphatic system, the fiber located under the skin and eye tissues.
- Means whose active substance is Levamisole. Such agents are usually used to treat necrosis, enterobiosis, trichostrogylosis, trichocephaly and others.
- Preparations that include albendazole. It is mainly used to treat cysticercosis and ascariasis.
In any case, you should not forget that self-medication is not recommended in the detection of helminthiasis. This can lead to complications and 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 use.
In order to achieve positive treatment, it is necessary to contact a medical specialist who specializes in 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 most effective, parasitologists make every effort to determine as accurately as possible to which species the parasites that have settled in the patient's body belong.
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.