One of the varieties of worms that parasitize in the human body are worms or, in other words, helminths. These parasites have an amazing ability to live and multiply extremely 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 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 in order not to get infected with worms, it is enough to wash our hands more often and follow general rules of hygiene. But it is not so. 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 physician 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 of the most common signs that may indicate that parasites have appeared in the body:
- A person quickly gets tired, he often shows aggression and anger for no apparent reason. Patients are often severely depressed. Such people do not sleep well or suffer from insomnia.
- In the abdomen of the patient, pain and discomfort and rumbling, bloating and flatulence are often manifested. 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 is 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 sorts of rashes on the surface of the skin or mucous membranes, and they also develop various allergic reactions.
If a person manifests 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, together with food or drink. Parasitologists distinguish the following main ways of parasite infestation:
- Helminthiasis. Parasites enter the patient's body through drink or soil. This can be direct contact with animals or the ingestion of eggs from flies laid on food or fruits and vegetables.
- Contact. This route of infection with parasites 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 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 second with worms.
From the foregoing, it follows that there are many ways that can cause infection with worms. 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 into the body.
One of the first barriers is saliva, which contains many different enzymes. It is these enzymes that have a unique ability to adversely affect the vast majority of types of worms.
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 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.
In order to know exactly how to deal with parasites, you need to know their varieties and characteristics. Classifying worms, there are three main large 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 varieties of this type of parasite are roundworm, whipworm, pinworm 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 fish. Eating poorly cooked 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.
- 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 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.
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, 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. 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 for determining helminthiasis in adults is the analysis of feces 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 eggs by worms. As an example, consider roundworms. 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 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 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 cyst excretion do not coincide.
Some experts use a specially designed test, by answering the questions of which it is possible to establish approximately 50% of the development of helminthiasis in a patient. Here are the questions for this test:
- Do you feel itching in your anus?
- Whether there is a rash on the skin.
- Do you feel nauseous in the morning.
- Are you suffering from sleep disorders.
- Do you have a 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 suggests using 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 (skin ultraviolet scanner) is quite expensive and not every medical institution can afford to purchase it.
It is possible to determine the presence of not only worm cysts in a person's feces, 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 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 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 identify the presence of parasites in the patient's blood. To determine if 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 interrelated 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 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 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 that are used to destroy worms can be conditionally subdivided into the following groups:
- Means that include Mebendazole. This group of medicines is used most often 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 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 usually used to treat non-kotorosis, enterobiasis, trichostrogillosis, trichocephalosis, etc.
- Preparations that 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 of the antihelminthic drugs have toxic properties and require a specially designed regimen for their administration.
In order to achieve a positive treatment, it is necessary to contact a medical professional whose specialization is parasitology. Moreover, a prerequisite 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 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, physicians 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 duration of the course are being developed. It is recommended to strictly adhere to the instructions of the parasitologists.