Mebendazole is the main medication used to treat threadworm infections. It can be bought over the counter from your local pharmacy or prescribed by your GP. It's available as a chewable tablet or a liquid. Mebendazole works by preventing the threadworms absorbing sugar, which means they should die within a few days.
Eggs can live for up to 2 weeks outside the body. There are things you can do to stop becoming infected again.
"Changing and washing bedding can help to remove threadworm eggs within the linen," agrees Dr Luke Powles, clinical director at Bupa UK. "However, be careful when removing the sheets as shaking bedding around may cause the eggs to land on other surfaces and spread infection."
Pay attention to kids' hygiene
Wash your hands regularly to avoid picking up the infection yourself, and encourage children to do the same, especially after using the toilet or playing outside. It also helps if fingernails are kept short and clean – longer nails can provide a great hiding place for the infection.
The worms die after about six weeks. Provided that you do not swallow any new eggs, no new worms will grow to replace them. So, if you continue the hygiene measures described above for six weeks, this should break the cycle of re-infection, and clear your gut of threadworms.
Threadworms usually produce no symptoms except an itchy bottom. In fact, people may harbour them for years without realising it.
Threadworms are highly contagious. Hygiene measures should be followed for 6 weeks. As well as medicating all family members at the same time to prevent the spread of eggs you should: Clean toilet seats daily.
This infection occurs after a person swallows tapeworm eggs. The larvae get into tissues such as muscle and brain, and form cysts there (these are called cysticerci).
Threadworms do not go away by themselves, and people do not build up immunity to them, so they must be treated in order to eradicate them totally from the body.
These can survive for up to 2 weeks outside the body on underwear, bedding etc. Good hygiene will clear any eggs from the body and the home, and prevent any eggs from being swallowed.
You or your child can get threadworms by accidently swallowing worm eggs found on contaminated surfaces. This can happen by scratching the anal region and then touching your mouth or food.
Threadworm begins with an itchy feeling around the anus (back passage), usually at night under warm sheets. Without treatment, threadworm may give rise to vaginitis (inflammation of the vagina) in girls and women. You can often see threadworms, a 1cm thread-like worm, wriggling in your child's stools or their bottom.
If you have worms, a GP will prescribe medicine to kill them. You take this for 1 to 3 days. The people you live with may also need to be treated. Any worms in your gut will eventually pass out in your poo.
The most common symptoms of a threadworm can include: An itchy bottom. General irritability and behavioural changes. Trouble sleeping, or restless sleep, sometimes resulting in bed-wetting.
Roundworms include threadworms and hookworms, which live in the intestines. Tapeworms also live in the intestines and are usually found in people who have eaten raw or uncooked meat. Flukeworms can live in other parts of the body as well as the intestines, including the blood vessels, gut, lungs or liver.
Pinworms can usually be treated completely with two doses of over-the-counter medicine called pyrantel pamoate, available in the United States under the brand names Pin-X and Reese's Pinworm Medicine. Take one dose immediately and another dose two weeks later.
Although often asymptomatic, parasitic infections can lead to disruptions in mood, behavior and sleep – particularly in children with worms. The most common worm infection amongst Australian children is threadwork (pinworm, Enterobius vermicularis).
Complete die-off within the tested exposure time range was noted for 70 °C, 75 °C and 80 °C, however treatment at 60 °C and 65 °C allowed for development of a few eggs after incubation.
Medications kill only the adult worms and have no effect on developing eggs and larvae. The prescription of choice is mebendazole* and the non-prescription medication of choice is pyrantel pamoate. Both mebendazole and pyrantel pamoate are given as a single dose and repeated in 2 weeks to kill any newly ingested eggs.
Some people have no symptoms. If they occur, the main symptom is itching around the anus that can disturb sleep. This occurs 1–2 months after the pinworms enter the body, during the maturing and reproduction stage.
If it doesn't wiggle, it's probably lint or a thread. The worm may be seen around the anus or on the child's bottom. It is especially active at night or early morning. Rarely, the pinworm is seen on the surface of a stool.
It's also important to wash any bedding and towels to get rid of any eggs, as they can live for up to two weeks outside the body. “Worms like sugar,” says Dr Snell, “so it can also be a good idea to cut back on sugar in your child's diet, too.”