There are a huge number of various parasites that can exist in the internal organs of a person or inhabit his skin and hair.Including such parasites can be helminths.
Helminths- the general name of parasitic worms living in the human body, other animals or plants.
According to the statistical data of the World Health Organization, more than 4.5 billion people in the world are infected with various parasites, many of which are helminths.
The official reporting statistics of the Russian Federation notes an increase in the incidence of basic helminthias in some territories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, in particular: echinococcosis, opisthorchiasis.In a number of territories, indicators of incidence of enterobiosis and ascaridosis remain at a high level.
There are a lot of ways of getting into the human body, however, one of the most common ways of infection is infection through food products.Poorly washed vegetables, fruits or herbs, insufficiently fried or boiled meat, fish, poultry, improperly treated foods can lead to infection with helminths.
You can get infected in case of improper storage of the finished product, for example, storage of sweet pastries without protective packaging can lead to infection with helminths, whose eggs can enter the finished product using flies or other insects.
Let's try to figure out which helminths transmitted with food and are most common in our country, and how to minimize the risk of infection with them.
Supreme (cat, hepatic, lanceolate, etc.)
Fasciolosis
In humans, more than 40 types of subsiders can parasitize, while the localization of helminths in the body can be very different - liver, light, blood vessels.
The hepatic borrower is the causative agent of fascioliasis and affects the liver and gall bladder.
A person is infected when using vegetable garden crops, for watering water from open water bodies was used.
Patients have general symptoms of intoxication - weakness, decreased appetite, nausea, headaches.Allergic reactions may occur in the form of skin itching or urticaria, asthmatic attacks.
An increase in the size of the parasite can lead to a violation of the flow of bile in the duodenum and the occurrence of signs of mechanical jaundice.Patients have pain in the right hypochondrium.Next, the yellowness of the skin can be observed and feces are discolored.
Opistorchoz
The causative agents of opisthorchiasis is a cat saucer.
Human infection occurs when raw, not sufficiently thermally processed or salted fish.
The clinical manifestations of opisthorchiasis are characterized by a significant variety.It depends on the individual characteristics of the body, as well as on the intensity and duration of infection.The number of parasitic worms can fluctuate in a large range: from single parasites to several tens, and even hundreds.Repeated use of infected fish leads to an increase in infection and aggravation of clinical manifestations.Clinically, the disease can be accompanied by an increase in temperature in patients, the appearance of urticaria, skin itching, muscles and joint pain.Patients may have pain in the right hypochondrium, a feeling of heaviness in the stomach, nausea.
Paragonism
The main causative agent of the paragonimosis in humans is a pulmonary bacon.
The causative agent of the disease enters the intestines of a person when eating crustaceans living in areas, where there is a focus of the disease, and migrates through the body: they penetrate through the intestinal wall into the abdominal cavity, and then enter the pleural cavity through the diaphragm, then into the lung tissue.Longer larvae can also penetrate other organs and tissues.The localization of the parasite in the brain is especially dangerous.Impulmonary localization of the parasite happens in a third of infected people and is often the cause of death.
At the early stage of the disease, when the pulmonary bacon only migrates throughout the body, the disease proceeds almost asymptomatic.Sometimes small allergic reactions, skin itching are possible, less often - abdominal pain, jaundice.As soon as the parasite reaches the final localization, the patients have pronounced symptoms of lung damage: constant cough with abundant sputum, severe pain in the chest.During illness, various complications may occur, for example, pneumothorax - air entering the pleural cavity.Very often in patients, pneumonia or pleurisy (inflammation in the pleural cavity) develop.
Ribbon worms
Ribbon worms (cestodes) - a group of parasitic worms having a ribbon shape and consisting of a different number of anatomically isolated segments - swallow.The dimensions of the worms vary from a few millimeters to 10-15 meters or more.At the front end of the worm, the head is located, which is an organ of fixation of the parasite to the human intestinal mucosa.Helmint is fixed to the intestinal wall using different devices - rounded or slit -like suction cups, hooks.
Difillobotriosis
The causative agent of dipillobotriosis is a wide tape, which lives in the intestines of a person.
The tape is wide-reach a length of 12-15 meters or more, and the number of segments-several thousand.
Human infection occurs when not sufficiently thermally processed, freshly frozen, poorly chopped, poorly wilted and dung, raw fish minced fish, as well as when using freshly salted fish.The clinical picture is due to the mechanical effect of helminth on the intestinal mucosa and the absorption of nutrients.Patients with dipillobotriosis complain of pain and rumbling in the stomach, nausea, vomiting.Often there is a stool disorder.With the simultaneous parasitization of several worms, intestinal obstruction may occur.
The tape adsorizes vitamin B12 on its surface, and this leads to a violation of the formation of red blood cells in the body of patients and the occurrence of anemia.Patients have pallor of the skin, weakness, malaise.
Toniarynchosis
The causative agent of the shadowing is a bull tapeworm, which is localized by the small intestine of a person and can reach a length of 10 meters.
People are infected with tusiarinchosis when eating infected meat of cattle (poorly fried or cooked, string, minced meat).
The tusirinchosis often proceeds asymptomatic and is detected by chance when the patient sees in his feces a parasite segment, or detects them in bed or on clothes.During questioning, the patient can complain that recently he feels weakness, increased fatigue, sleep disturbance, skin of rumbling in the abdomen, pain in the right venerable region, vomiting, violation of the chair.
As a complication of tusirinchosis in patients, an attack of acute appendicitis or intestinal obstruction may occur.
Teniosis
The causative agent of the tiniosis is a pork chain that is localized in the small intestine of a person and can reach a length of 3 meters.
Pork tapeworm can be localized in various organs and tissues.
Relatively favorably cystycchosis with localization in subcutaneous tissue or skeletal muscles.
With eye cystiscose, patients complain of distorting the shape of objects, lacrimation, and a gradual decrease in visual acuity.
The cystiscosis of the brain is difficult and often ends with a fatal outcome for a sick person.
Echinococcosis
The causative agent of echinococcosis is an echinococcus, which is localized in the liver and lungs and can reach a length of 5-6 meters.
For a person, infection with echinococcus is possible with the use of unwashed garden crops, vegetables or fruits, which could be parasite eggs.
The clinical manifestations of the disease depend on the size, quantity and localization of echinococcus bubbles in the patient's body.With the localization of echinococcus in the liver, patients complain of the severity and pain in the right hypochondrium, as well as the yellowness of the skin as a result of a violation of the outflow of bile.Large cysts, squeezing the gate vein, lead to a violation of venous blood outflow from the intestines and the appearance of ascite - the accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity.
When localized in the lungs, dry cough and pain during breathing are concerned.
Alveococcosis
The causative agent of alveococcosis is alveococcus, which affects the liver with possible subsequent metastases to various other organs.The size of the alveococcus does not exceed 5 mm.
A person is infected when eating unwashed wild herbs and forest berries, as well as when eating products, washing which is carried out in an open pond.
At the early stage of the disease, patients are concerned about weakness, malaise, headache, skin itching.In the future, complaints of a sense of heaviness in the right hypochondrium may appear;vomiting, diarrhea, bloating, especially after eating fatty foods.
The patient's condition worsens significantly when alveococcus enters other organs.The most dangerous metastases in the brain, kidneys, lungs.Against the background of inhibition of the patient’s immune system, the bubbles are suppuration very often, abscesses occur in the internal organs, which even more aggravates the patient's condition and can be the cause of death.
Round worms (nematodes)
Round worms are one of the most numerous types of worms.Diseases caused by round worms are called nematodoses.
The body of the Nematod has a spindle -shaped or threaded shape, ties at the ends, rounded in the cross section, the size of the round of worms can be different, but more often does not exceed 0.5 meters.
Acaridosis
The causative agent of the ascariasis is ascaris, parasitizing in the small intestine of a person.The size of mature worms can reach 40 cm.
The main and only possible mechanism of human infection with ascaridosis is fecal-oral.Unwashed vegetables or fruits, water, household items, dirty hands are the main transmission factors.And if you recall the mechanical carriers of eggs - insects, then the list of products on which the Askaride eggs may be extremely large.
The clinical manifestations of ascariasis depend on the amount of parasites in the small intestine.Most often, one individual lives in a person’s intestines - then the disease is most often asymptomatic.
In the presence of several individuals in the body, patients have signs of intoxication of the body with products of worms.Patients complain of dizziness, headache, sleep disturbance.There is a feeling of heaviness in the stomach, unstable chair.When parasitizing a large amount of ascaride, symptoms of intestinal obstruction may appear.
Enterobiosis
The causative agent of enterobiosis is the cuts, which are localized in the intestines, and can reach the size of up to 1 cm.
The only way of infection with cuts is fecal-oral.Unwashed vegetables and fruits, household items, dirty hands are the main transmission factors.Insects can also be puppers of cutting eggs for food.
When parasitizing a small number of parasites, an asymptomatic course of the disease is possible, while in the presence of a large number of parasites, itching is observed in the anus, patients are possible in abdominal pain, nausea, and stool disorder.
During the migration of the females, the females can penetrate the genitals with the subsequent occurrence of the inflammatory process in them.
Trichinosis
The causative agent of trichinellosis is Trichinella, which is localized in the small intestine and skeletal muscles of the host.
Trichinella is one of the smallest nematodes.The sizes of parasites barely reach 4 mm.Adult trichinelles parasitize in the small intestine, and in the larval stage in the transverse striped muscles, the exclusion is the heart muscle.
A person is infected, using infected animals - wild boars, pigs, bears, seals.For infection, it is enough to use 30-50 g of trichinelle meat.Most often, a person is infected with the use of meat, fat, ham, bacon, briskets, as well as sausages made of carcasses of infected animals.
Clinically trichinellosis is manifested by general symptoms of malaise, headache, fever to 38-39 ° C.
A little later, a pronounced edema of the eyelids or the entire face appears, sometimes swelling of the limbs occurs.These symptoms add muscle pain - calf, chewing, lumbar.Gradually, muscle pain intensifies, spread to new muscle groups.The patient’s movements become more and more limited, sometimes until complete immobilization.
Intoxication of the patient’s body with the products of parasite’s life leads to damage to the heart, lungs, brain and can be the cause of the patient's death.
Helminthiasis prevention
In order to prevent infection with helminths, several rules must be followed, namely:
- Observe the simplest rules of personal hygiene, including washing hands after the street, before meals, after contact with money and animals.
- Try to avoid contact with stray animals, and if you have a pet, regularly visit a veterinary clinic.It is imperative to conduct courses of animal deworming with the frequency recommended by the veterinarian.
- Wash fruits, vegetables, berries thoroughly, even if they are from your personal plot.
- Do not drink water and do not wash the dishes and food with water, the safety of which you are not sure.
- Eat only products that have passed the necessary heat treatment.
- Provide insect protection in your kitchen.For example, to seize window openings, cover ready -made dishes.
- Do not eat dried or dried home -made fish.
- Do not use homemade salty lard.