Worms or worms are parasites that live, feed, grow and reproduce in the human body, in other words, they use it to carry out their life cycle. According to various statistics, there are 300-500 species of worms in the world that are dangerous to humans. Their prevalence varies from country to country and depends on the level of health culture of the population and the socio-economic development of the region. But even in enlightened European countries, the symptoms of helminthiasis occur in a third of the population. Worm larvae can enter the human body in different ways depending on their development cycle. Names of worms in humans, their species, methods of infection, symptoms and methods of treatment of helminthiasis are information relevant to the majority of the world's population.
What types of worms are there?
During many years of evolution, parasites have ideally adapted to live at the expense of other living beings without raising suspicion in the immune system for a long time, so the symptoms of worms in humans do not appear immediately and can be completely absent or mild. expressed.
Worms are able to penetrate the body unnoticed, camouflage themselves, destroy tissues and organs, and poison the human body with toxins, living inside it for a long time.
Some worms are only dangerous to humans, while others are parasites in animals. Their size varies from microscopic to gigantic (at least 15 meters in length). About three dozen parasites are common, including protozoan single-celled creatures. Among the diversity, there are 3 main groups of helminths, depending on the characteristics of their life cycle:
- Contact with worms- found only in humans, have a simple development cycle that does not require more than one host. Typical representatives are pinworms; these are the most common intestinal worms in children. Infection occurs in families, groups of children, in public places through unwashed hands, household objects (toys, books, curtains, etc. ) on which the mature eggs of these worms have fallen, and through inhalation of dust.
- A group of geohelminths– its eggs must first mature in soil, water or sand. They enter the human body through the mouth, through unwashed berries, vegetables or herbs (such as roundworms and whipworms) or through the skin (such as hookworms).
- Biohelminths– they have a complex life cycle, with a change of owner. These worms appear in humans by eating poorly washed vegetables or raw water (echinococcus), animal meat contaminated with larvae (beef or pork tapeworm), planed fish and caviar (broad tapeworm), river fish (fluke or liver fluke), or through the bloodstream. (filaria).
Types of worms
All types of intestinal worms can be classified into 3 classes according to their morphological characteristics:
- Class Nematodes (roundworms)– roundworms, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, trichinella. Roundworms are distinguished by the presence of separate sexes and are of different sizes - from 1 cm (female pinworm) to 40 cm (ascaris).
- Class Trematodes (commonly called flukes)– Siberian flu (cat flu), schistosomes. They are always biohelminths and hermaphrodites, equipped with various means for sucking and attaching to organs inside a person.
- Class Cestodes (type of flatworms)- These are long tapeworm parasites. These include the broad tapeworm, pig and cattle tapeworm - the largest tapeworm, which can grow up to 20 meters long. Flatworms feed on the entire surface of the body, are hermaphrodites and biohelminths. Echinococcus is the smallest representative of cestodes.
The essence of the world of worms is great diversity and exceptional survival. The classes of trematodes and cestodes are 100% parasites, but roundworms are heterogeneous, there are tens of thousands of species, but not all like to parasitize the human body. Most helminths lay eggs that survive for several months in the external environment, and trichinella is a viable individual..
In the human body, worms do not only live in the intestines, some of them live in the liver, lung parenchyma, brain, skin, muscle tissue and even in the eyeball.
Worms can be long-lived; for example, cysticerci can live in the brain for many years; hydatid cyst growth can persist for up to 10 years.
About roundworms
Which worms are the most common:
- Pinworms- they live in the lower parts of the small intestine and the entire human colon; females lay eggs around the anus at night, which causes the characteristic sign of enterobiasis in humans - itching. Transmission of worms between people occurs through dirty hands (eggs of worms are very often found under children's nails), bedding and household items. Eggs are very light and can spread through the air with dust; they remain viable for up to six months. These are the least poisonous of the worms. Human excrement does not contain these, for diagnosis a scraping from the perianal area must be taken.
- Ascaris- a large worm with a curved, hook-shaped end; an adult individual can reach up to half a meter. The eggs mature in the soil and enter the stomach and small intestine with unwashed berries, vegetables or herbs. The freed larvae chew through the intestinal wall, penetrate the venous liver, and from there rush with the blood flow to the lungs, the right parts of the heart, and occasionally to the brain and eyes, where inflammation develops in these organs. When coughing, the sputum enters the mouth with the larvae and is swallowed again into the gastrointestinal tract, where mature individuals develop and lay eggs after a month. These worms are brown or reddish in color because they steal red blood cells. The lifespan of a roundworm is up to 2 years. In order to make a diagnosis, the stool is examined for worm eggs.
- Whipworm- a hair-thin, approximately 5 cm long, pointed worm that attaches to the inner surface of the intestinal wall. The eggs mature in the soil, from where they penetrate the intestines, where the larvae hatch. Whipworms feed on blood and like to stay in the appendix and caecum, often causing inflammation and anemia. Life expectancy is about 3-4 years. To detect it, you need to examine the stool for worm eggs.
- Trichinella- a small round worm that moves between predators and animals. When humans eat meat, they become infected with larvae, and after a few days, the individual Trichinella develops in the intestines, which gives birth to live larvae. They can infect the whole body through the blood, but they prefer the skeletal muscles, where they remain for up to 5 years.
About tapeworms and fungi
What types of worms cause the most damage to the human body:
- Bull tapeworm (commonly known as tapeworm)- considered the largest worm of man (up to 15-20 meters), whose body is in the form of a band of thousands of individual segments, the most mature of which are in the tail and fall off when the eggs mature. These fragments are the size of a human fingernail, fall on the ground and grass, and then enter the cattle's body. Humans become infected through the meat of the cow. The bovine tapeworm can live in the human small intestine for up to 10 years, feeding through the entire surface of the body. The stool is examined for diagnosis.
- Pig tapeworm– similar to the bull tapeworm, but shorter. When a person becomes infected with a larva, the tapeworm grows in the small intestine; if infected with eggs, the larvae migrate and can infect any organ.
- Broad tapeworm– their worm type is flat, longer than 12 meters. People become infected by eating poorly salted caviar, dried or poorly cooked fish. It can settle in the small intestine for decades, constantly releasing mature segments together with larvae into the environment.
- Echinococcus- the smallest parasite of the cestode class. Its larvae form cysts over several years, which can be located in different organs and reach a diameter of 10 cm or more. The infection comes from dogs or sick animals. The course is characterized by a pronounced clinical picture and the risk of complications.
- Feline (liver) fluke- by consuming poorly cooked freshwater fish, the small worm that enters the human body and lives in the lumen of the small intestine, in the bile and pancreatic ducts, can multiply quickly and live for up to two decades.
Despite the diversity of species, it is possible to determine quite accurately which worm lives in the human body using modern diagnostic methods and the old proven test - helminth eggs in the feces.
The treatment is carried out after the diagnosis is confirmed and prescribed by the attending physician.