Tapeworms
Rebecca Root
May 21, 2012
Module 2 – Lecture
Brookline College
Tapeworm infection is caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with tapeworm eggs or larvae. If you ingest certain tapeworm eggs, they can migrate outside your intestines and form larval cysts in body tissues and organs (invasive infection).
If you ingest tapeworm larvae, however, they develop into adult tapeworms in your intestines (intestinal infection).
An adult tapeworm consists of a head, neck and chain of segments called proglottids. When you have an intestinal tapeworm infection, the tapeworm head adheres to the intestine wall, and the proglottids grow and produce eggs. Adult tapeworms can live for up to 20 years in a host. Intestinal tapeworm infections are usually mild, but invasive larval infections can cause serious complications.
Eating undercooked meat from infected animals is the main cause of tapeworm infection in humans. Although tapeworms in humans usually cause few symptoms and are easily treated, they can sometimes cause serious, life-threatening problems. That’s why it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of tapeworms and know how to protect yourself and your family.
Six types of tapeworms are known to infect people. They are usually identified by the animals they come from. For example: Taenia saginata from beef, Taenia solium from pork, and Diphyllobothrium latum from fish. Tapeworms have a three-stage lifecycle: egg; an immature stage called a larva; and an adult stage at which the worm can produce more eggs because larvae can get into the muscles of their hosts, infection can occur when you eat raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal. It is also possible to contract pork tapeworms from foods prepared by an infected person. Because tapeworm eggs are passed with bowel movements, a person who doesn’t wash hands well after wiping and then prepares food can contaminate the food.
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Sometimes tapeworms cause signs and symptoms such as: nausea, weakness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hunger or loss of appetite, fatigue, weight loss, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. However, often having tapeworms does not cause symptoms. The only sign of tapeworm infection may be segments of the worms, possibly moving, in a bowel movement.
In rare cases, tapeworms can lead to serious complications, including blocking the intestine. If pork tapeworm larvae move out of the intestine, they can migrate to other parts of the body and cause damage to the liver, eyes, heart, and brain. These infections can be life-threatening. There are different types of worms and tapeworms that can infect people, diagnosing a tapeworm infection may require a stool sample to identify the type of worm. If worms are not detected in the stool, your doctor may order a blood test to check for antibodies produced to fight tapeworm infection. For serious cases, your doctor may use imaging tests such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to check for damage outside the digestive tract.
The type and length of treatment may depend on the type of tapeworm you have. Tapeworms are usually treated with a single dose of medicine taken by mouth. Commonly used medicines for tapeworms are praziquantel (Biltricide) and albendazole (Albenza).
These medications kill the tapeworms. The dead tapeworms then dissolve or pass from your body with bowel movements. If worms are large, you may have cramping when they pass. Your doctor will recheck stool samples at one and three months after you finish treatment. When tapeworms are confined to the intestines, appropriate treatment gets rid of them in more than 95% of people. More serious complications of tapeworm infection are also treated with medications.
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Tapeworm There are many different parasitic worms that people need to worry about. Tapeworm is one of them. This is a fairly familiar worm but there are many more interesting facts to be learned about the tapeworm. The tapeworm belongs to the phylum Platyhelminths and the class Cestode. Normally being white or yellow in color, tapeworms have long, flat, ribbon-like, segmented bodies. They have a ...
References
http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tapeworms-in-humans
