One of the intestinal parasites or intestinal worms is the tapeworm. It is present in contaminated water, human or animal feces. If tapeworms are confirmed, treatment will be required to remove them, but don’t worry as this treatment can be effective. Let’s see what these tapeworms are, their symptoms, causes and risk factors.
What is tapeworm infection?
Tapeworms are intestinal flatworms that enter the human body in one way or another and cause many biological problems. It affects humans, livestock and pets alike. Its head sticks to the inside of the intestine and absorbs nutrients from the digested food. Its body continues to grow and lay eggs. The eggs pass through the intestines and pass out of the body in the feces. This egg can somehow get into someone else’s body and live there.
What are the symptoms of tapeworm?
Many people with tapeworms have no symptoms. Many people do not even notice that they are attached to the intestine. Often these cause fatigue, abdominal pain, weight loss and diarrhoea. Symptoms vary depending on the type of tapeworm.
Eggs, larvae, or parts of the tapeworm present in feces
Abdominal pain
vomiting
Nausea
General weakness
Intestinal inflammation
diarrhea
Weight loss
loss of appetite
Difficulty sleeping Dizziness
Severe malnutrition
Vitamin B12 deficiency is rare
If the worms travel to other parts of the body, they can cause headaches and serious neurological problems such as seizures.
How does the tapeworm enter the human body?
People who have tapeworms get tapeworms in their intestines through eggs or larvae. Ingestion of the eggs is passed on to humans.
They can be spread through food, water, or contaminated soil.
When you eat meat such as pork, if it has tapeworms, they can enter your body
May be in feces. It may contain thousands of eggs.
And drinking contaminated water
Contact with infected animals
Walking barefoot with dirty soil
Eating contaminated food
In such cases, the eggs hatch as larvae and travel into or out of the intestine to infect other parts of the body.
This infection is common from pigs.
Tapeworm infected meat or fish
Infected meat or fish with larval cysts can pass into the human intestine if it is uncooked or raw. They can then mature into adult worms.
The tapeworm can live up to 25 years and can reach a length of 50 feet. These are found in uncooked raw freshwater fish that adhere well to the walls of the intestine.
Human-to-human transmission
According to a 2015 study, tapeworms can be transmitted from person to person. It can go through its entire life cycle. It is a common tapeworm infection worldwide. Eating food prepared by an infected person can spread the infection to another person.
Inadequate personal hygiene while cooking with contaminated hands due to not washing hands properly while handling food is a risk factor for this infection.
Transmission from insects to humans
Some species are spread by beetles.
Eggs can be picked up by insects feeding on the droppings of infected rats or mice.
Insect droppings
After the egg enters the human body, it turns into an adult.
People with tapeworms are at risk of re-infection if they do not wash their hands again after going to the toilet after treatment.
Let’s continue to see what are the dangers of tapeworm in the body and what are the treatments for this.
