What if i have tapeworms

These medications, if procedures are followed properly, are 95 percent effective. If the infection affects tissues outside the intestine, the patient may have to take a course of anti-inflammatory steroids to reduce swelling caused by the development of cysts. If the patient has life-threatening cysts that have developed in vital organs, such as the lungs or liver, surgery may be required.

The doctor may inject a cyst with medication, such as formalin, to destroy the larvae before removing the cyst. Most people become infected after ingesting tapeworm eggs or larvae. The common methods of infection include:. If a host, such as a pig, has a tapeworm inside, segments of the worm or its eggs may be present in the feces of the host. These drop onto the soil. Each segment may contain thousands of eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae and make their way into the gut or outside, and infect other parts of the body.

This type of infection is most common with tapeworms that come from infected pigs, and much less common if the original host was cattle or fish. If the meat or fish have larvae cysts and is undercooked or raw, the cysts can reach the intestine where they mature into adult tapeworms. Fish tapeworm infection is more common in countries where the consumption of raw fish is common practice, such as Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan. Undercooked or raw freshwater fish such as salmon, are the most common sources.

The dwarf tapeworm can be transmitted from human to human. It is the only tapeworm that can go through its entire life cycle in one single host. Dwarf tapeworm infection is the most common tapeworm infection globally. Fleas and some types of beetles may pick up the eggs by eating the droppings of infected rats or mice. These insects can infect humans. The insects are referred to as intermediate hosts and the tapeworm transitions from egg to the adult stage. It can take months or years for signs to start.

Then, a child might complain of:. Kids with a tapeworm infection may feel a piece of the worm coming out through the anus where the poop comes out. You may even see a piece of worm in the poop. A tapeworm that's in the intestines for a long time can get big and block the appendix or other organs, leading to appendicitis and other problems.

There are different types of tapeworm. One fish tapeworm can cause anemia because it uses up the vitamin B12 that a person needs to make red blood cells. The eggs of another type of tapeworm pork tapeworm cause a disease called cysticercosis sis-tuh-ser-KOE-sis. This happens when pork tapeworm eggs from poop get into someone's mouth.

It doesn't happen from eating contaminated pork. They hatch into larvae, then go through the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream.

From there they can travel to different organs in the body, such as muscles, eyes, or brain, where they form cysts. This can lead to:. The people you live with may also need to be treated. Any worms in your gut will eventually pass out in your poo. You may not notice this. To avoid becoming infected again or infecting others, it's very important during the weeks after starting treatment to wash your hands:. Go back to the GP if your symptoms do not get better in 2 weeks or you keep passing live worms in your poo.

Worms are mainly spread in small bits of poo from people with a worm infection. When a cow or pig has a tapeworm infestation, for example, the worms lay eggs inside the animal. These tapeworm eggs or resulting larvae can then get lodged in the muscle tissue of the animal. These eggs can continue to live in the tissue of the animal even after slaughter. The tapeworm larvae then develop into fully grown adult tapeworms.

Another potential cause of a tapeworm infection is another human. Since the tapeworm lives in the digestive tract, its eggs can also be passed in the stool. Many developing countries have poor water treatment facilities and processes. As a result, it is easy for contaminated drinking water to affect large population areas.

Sometimes feces from an infected animal enters the soil and is able to then move to water sources; in such circumstances, a wide variety of different parasites could potentially infect the humans who rely on that water. Unfortunately, a lot of people who get infected by a tapeworm may not even have any symptoms and therefore may be oblivious to their infection for years. For people who never experience any symptoms, the only indicator that they were ever infected is seeing the tapeworm in a stool sample; imagine looking down at your poop and seeing a wriggly worm!

However, there are some common symptoms that do tend to show up, especially in the more common intestinal infections such as taeniasis from eating infected beef or pork :.

In some rare cases, the eggs laid by the tapeworm can develop into larvae and become mobile. When this happens, the larvae can migrate out of the digestive tract to other parts of the body.