Symptoms of pinworm
Pinworm infections often produce no symptoms but, when they occur, symptoms can include: itchy bottom, especially at night. reduced appetite. feeling mildly unwell.
Pinworms don't cause any harm (just itching and restless sleep), and it won't take long to get rid of them.
If left untreated, the intense itching and scratching associated with these infections will result in secondary bacterial infections. Some of these may be difficult to treat. Untreated people can continue to infect other people.
Call Your Doctor If:
Pinworm is seen. Skin around the anus gets red or tender. Anal itching lasts more than 1 week.
Once someone has ingested pinworm eggs, there is an incubation period of 1 to 2 months or longer for the adult gravid female to mature in the small intestine. Once mature, the adult female worm migrates to the colon and lays eggs around the anus at night, when many of their hosts are asleep.
To treat pinworm infection, your doctor may recommend over-the-counter pyrantel pamoate or prescribe medication to all members of your household to prevent infection and reinfection. The most common prescription anti-parasite medications for pinworms are: Mebendazole. Albendazole (Albenza)
Chlorine dioxide gas inactivates pinworm eggs in a non-invasive and non-corrosive manner.
How long does pinworms last? The life cycle of a pinworm is 4 to 6 weeks. Without treatment, infestation will continue as long as fresh eggs are being swallowed, unless a person develops immunity to pinworms, which is unusual before age 15.
If you are self-treating for pinworms, take the medication once only. Do not repeat the dose without talking with your doctor first. Depending on the type of worm infection you have, your doctor may direct you to take the medication only once or for several days.
Symptoms may include diarrhoea, tiredness and weakness, abdominal pain and weight loss. Some worms cause anaemia.
If you have a large number of worms in the intestine, you might have: Severe abdominal pain. Fatigue. Vomiting.
Severe or persistent threadworm infections can cause: loss of appetite. weight loss. skin infection around the anus if bacteria enter any scratches caused by itching – wearing cotton gloves while sleeping may help prevent this.
Pinworm Infection Symptoms
Most people who are infected don't have symptoms. If you do, they might include: Anal itching, especially at night. Restless sleep.
Daily morning bathing and changing of underclothes helps remove a large proportion of pinworm eggs and can help prevent infection and reinfection. Showering may be preferred to avoid possible contamination of bath water.
Medicine can kill pinworms but not their eggs which can survive outside of the body for up to two weeks. Hand sanitiser is not effective against threadworms or their eggs, the best thing to do is wash hands regularly, scrub under fingernails, and wash clothing and bedsheets on hot cycles regularly.
The medications used for the treatment of pinworm are either mebendazole, pyrantel pamoate, or albendazole. Any of these drugs are given in one dose initially, and then another single dose of the same drug two weeks later. Pyrantel pamoate is available without prescription.
Most pinworm infections are mild and easily treated. Your doctor may prescribe a single chewable tablet of a medicine called mebendazole. A second tablet is taken about 3 weeks later if the infection isn't cured. Or your doctor may recommend another kind of medicine called pyrantel, which is taken as a single dose.
Many anti-worm preparations, for example pyrantel (e.g. brand names Anthel, Combantrin and Early Bird) and mebendazole (e.g. Combantrin-1 with Mebendazole, Vermox) can be bought over-the-counter at pharmacies. However, some are only available on prescription, such as albendazole (Zentel).
So many of us or our family members have experienced this relatively mild though distressing infection. Pinworm is the most common worm infection in North America with up to 50% of some groups of school aged children getting infected.
The adult female worm crawls out of the infected person's anus at night and lays her eggs in the surrounding skin. This causes itching and scratching. The worms can also move to the vagina of a female child and cause itching. Eggs can live for 2 to 3 weeks outside the body.