One of the types of worms that parasitize in the human body are worms or, in other words, helminths. These parasites have an incredible ability to live and multiply extremely quickly in various internal organs: liver and kidneys, brain and muscle tissue, eyes and intestines.
To our great regret, many of us simply underestimate the danger and seriousness of these parasites, while 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 for everyone.
Worms: causes and types
Many of us think that it is enough to wash our hands more often and follow the general rules of hygiene so that we do not become infected with worms. But it is not so. Almost 70% of the world's population are carriers of helminths.
The presence of worms in the body of an adult is quite difficult to detect if you are not a doctor who specializes in this field of medicine. This is due to the fact that the disease has virtually no obvious symptoms and signs.
There are several common signs that may indicate that parasites have appeared in the body:
- The person gets tired quickly, often showing aggression and anger for no reason. Patients are often severely depressed. Such people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- Pain and discomfort, as well as wheezing, bloating and bloating, are often manifested in the patient's abdomen. Sick people lose their appetite and lose weight quickly. Or maybe the other way around - patients have an overly strong appetite and can't 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 all kinds of rashes on the surface of the skin or mucous membranes, and various allergic reactions develop.
If a person manifests at least one of these signs, it should warn him and cause an urgent complaint to the 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 parasites:
- Helminthiasis. Parasites enter the patient's body through drink or soil. This can be direct contact with animals or swallowing fly eggs laid on food or fruits and vegetables.
- Contact. This time the infection with parasites is probably through contact with an already infected person.
- Biohelminthiasis. In this case, parasites enter the body due to consuming poorly cooked meat of animals, poultry or fish.
- Insect bites. Mosquitoes are one of the most common worms. At the same time, biting a sick and healthy person, a mosquito infects another 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. These enzymes have a unique ability to negatively affect the vast majority of worm species.
If the worms still managed 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 parasite species. In addition, the natural intestinal immunity of humans should not be underestimated.
Intestinal microflora, enzymes, blood cells - these are these 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 actively attack 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. The peculiarity 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 variants of this type of parasite are roundworms, whips, pinworm and trichina.
- Tapeworms. Among the most pronounced characteristics of the life cycle of this type of parasite is the fact that they have a middle "host", which is an animal or fish. Consuming poorly cooked or raw animal or fish meat has almost a 100% chance of contracting tapeworms. The most common representatives of this species are broad tapeworm, beef tapeworm, dwarf tapeworm, etc.
- Naive. Representatives of this group have a flat, leafy body, up to 1, 5 - 2 m long. At one end of the soil, there are two vacuum cups, with which the parasites are attached to the substrate. As a rule, flukes affect 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, poor appetite, fever, gastrointestinal dysfunction, etc. ) are quite similar to the symptoms of other diseases.
In addition, often the symptoms of the presence of helminths in the patient's body are banal allergies. 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 is unsuccessfully treated for a long time for dysbiosis.
Worms: symptoms in adults, treatment - an issue that has worried our society for more than a hundred years. One of the most common and most commonly used methods for determining helminthiasis in adults is the analysis of feces for helminth eggs.
Unfortunately, the percentage of 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 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. As an example, consider roundworms. Eggs are laid mostly 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.
Parasitologists often use a method such as enterobiosis. The essence of this technique is to take the patient by scraping in the anal canal. Unfortunately, this method is also not very effective.
The patient's blood test also does not give high rates of determining the presence of helminths. In both cases, the reason is the same - the time of analysis and the period of excretion of the cyst do not match.
Some experts use a specially designed test, answering questions that can determine about 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itching in your anus?
- Is there a skin rash.
- 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 answers 7 questions positively, it may indicate the presence of helminths in the body of an adult.
Modern medicine suggests the use of such a method as testing with an ultraviolet skin scanner. Unfortunately, this method of diagnosing helminthiasis is not used often. 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 a person's feces not only of worm cysts, but also parts of their body, using a method such as a 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.
In order 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 determine the presence of parasites in a patient's organs such as the liver or brain.
A complete blood count or immunological tests will help determine the presence of parasites in the patient's blood. Experts 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 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 connection.
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 types of disease caused by tapeworms or echinococcus 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 parasite that has settled in the body of an adult.
The complexity of treatment lies in the fact that anthelmintic drugs destroy only adult individuals, and larvae 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:
- 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, mixed helminthiasis, etc.
- Preparations containing diethylcarbamazine. Basically, these funds have shown excellent results in the treatment of diseases that affect the human lymphatic system, fibers located under the skin and eye tissue.
- Agents whose active substance is Levamisole. Such agents are usually used to treat necrosis, enterobiasis, trichostrogylosis, trichocephaly, etc.
- Preparations including albendazole. It is mainly used to treat cysticercosis and ascariasis.
By no means 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 anthelmintic drugs have toxic properties and require a specially designed regimen for their application.
To achieve positive treatment, it is necessary to contact a medical expert whose specialization is parasitology. Moreover, a prerequisite for treatment is strict adherence to the doctor's recommendations.
Such parasites of the human body as worms are extremely dangerous to human health. In order to make the treatment process as efficient as possible, parasitologists are trying to determine as precisely as possible which type of parasites that have settled in the patient's body belong to.
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, doses and course duration are being developed. Strict adherence to the parasitologist's instructions is recommended.