A tapeworm looks like a long, white ribbon. They can grow up to 80 feet long and live in a human for up to 30 years. Flukes are a type of flatworm. People are less likely than animals to contract flukes.
Raw watercress and other freshwater plants are the main sources of flukes in humans. You can also get them when you drink contaminated water. They make their home in your intestines, blood, or tissues. There are many varieties of flukes. None reach more than a few inches in length. Hookworms are transmitted through feces and contaminated soil. The most common way to make contact with this type of roundworm is to walk barefoot on soil infested with hookworm larvae.
They can pierce through the skin. Pinworms are tiny, fairly harmless worms. These roundworms, when fully matured, live in the colon and rectum.
The female lays eggs around the anus, usually during the night. The eggs can survive on bedding, clothing, and other materials. People contract them when they touch the eggs and end up putting them in their mouths. The eggs are so small you can even breathe them in if they become airborne.
Although pinworm infections are usually harmless and easily treatable, there have been less common cases of pinworms in the appendix that, when present, are usually in children and rarely in adults. One journal article found pinworms to be a rare cause of acute appendicitis.
Another journal article noted that pinworms in the tissues of a surgically removed appendix are an infrequent finding, and researchers also state that parasite infections only rarely cause acute appendicitis. However, these articles note that the symptoms of an intestinal parasite infection may mimic symptoms one would see in acute appendicitis, although appendicitis may or may not actually be occurring. Trichinosis roundworms are passed among animals. The most common way humans get trichinosis is by eating undercooked meat that contains the larvae.
The larvae mature in your intestines. As they reproduce, those larvae can travel outside the intestines into muscle and other tissue. You may not have any symptoms, or they may be quite mild. It may take weeks or months to notice additional symptoms of fluke infection. These may include:. As trichinosis worms travel through the bloodstream and enter other tissue or muscles, they can cause:. Parasitic infections can be spread in a number of ways. For example, protozoa and helminths can be spread through contaminated water, food, waste, soil, and blood.
Some can be passed through sexual contact. Some parasites are spread by insects that act as a vector, or carrier, of the disease. For example, malaria is caused by parasitic protozoa that are transmitted by mosquitos when they feed on humans. Anyone can get a parasitic infection. But some people are at greater risk than others.
Outdoor cats can come into contact with infected rodents and birds. This makes their owners more likely to contract toxoplasmosis, a type of protozoa.
Toxoplasmosis can be very harmful for pregnant women and their developing babies. The infection is spread through cat feces. Parasitic infections can be diagnosed in a number of ways. For example, your doctor might perform or order:. Your doctor may also order tests to check for bacteria or other things that can cause infections. Your treatment plan will depend on your specific diagnosis.
Typically, your doctor will prescribe medications. For example, they may prescribe medications to treat trichomoniasis, giardiasis, or cryptosporidiosis. Your doctor may also recommend other treatments to relieve your symptoms.
For example, many parasitic infections can cause diarrhea, which often leads to dehydration. Your doctor will likely encourage you to drink plenty of fluids to replenish those you lose. If you suspect you have a parasitic infection, make an appointment with your doctor. They can help diagnose the cause of your symptoms and recommend a treatment plan. By getting early treatment, you can help stop the spread of infection to other people.
Hookworms are parasites that affect the small intestine and lungs. Protozoa and helminths largely affect the gut, while ectoparasites include lice and mites that can attach to or burrow into the skin, staying there for long periods of time. Some, however, can cause severe disease in humans. Read more: Health check: the low-down on 'worms' and how to get rid of them. Faecal-oral transmission , where parasites found in the stool of one person end up being swallowed by another person, is the most common mode of transmission of parasitic protozoa and helminths.
The initial symptoms tend to be gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea. When parasites invade the red blood cells or organs, the consequences can become more serious. The protozoa giardia, for example, has a classic two-stage life cycle. In the first stage, called trophozoite, the parasite swims around and consumes nutrients from the small bowel. In the second stage it develops into a non-moving cyst. Cysts excreted in faeces can contaminate the water supply, and ingesting contaminated food or water results in transmission.
Close human to human contact and unsanitary living conditions can promote transmission. Symptoms of giardia can include severe or chronic diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, fatigue, weakness and weight loss. Other important protozoa are the plasmodium species.
Plasmodium develop in mosquitoes, and infected mosquitoes transmit the parasite to humans by biting them. Plasmodium destroys red blood cells which impacts organ function and causes a disease in humans known as malaria. Malaria causes the most deaths of all parasitic diseases.
In it was estimated malaria resulted in , deaths globally , most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more: How our red blood cells keep evolving to fight malaria.
Helminths, often called worms, are large multicellular organisms usually visible to the naked eye in their adult stages. As a general rule, helminths cannot multiply inside the human body.
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