Treatment. The most commonly used anti-worm products to treat intestinal worms (threadworms, roundworms and hookworms) are pyrantel, albendazole or mebendazole.
If you or your child have threadworms that won't go away or keep coming back, speak to a doctor. You should also see a doctor if you see slime or blood in poo, even if you don't have other symptoms of a threadworm infection.
Other intestinal worm infections are also treated with medicines that kill the parasite without harming the person, such as albendazole, mebendazole, ivermectin and praziquantel. Your doctor or a gastroenterologist will advise on the appropriate medicine and the dose. The worms are then usually passed out of the body.
Mebendazole: a medicine to treat worms - NHS.
COMBANTRIN® is only effective against adult worms, which means any eggs or immature worms inside the body might still linger after the initial treatment. In order to minimise the risk of reinfestation, a follow-up treatment two to four weeks later is strongly recommended if symptoms are still present.
Medicine kills the threadworms, but it does not kill the eggs. Eggs can live for up to 2 weeks outside the body. There are things you can do to stop becoming infected again.
Common signs include a cough, breathlessness or breathing difficulties but can include weight loss, lethargy, reduced appetite, anaemia and abnormal bleeding.
Anthelmintic medications (drugs that remove parasitic worms from the body), such as albendazole and mebendazole, are the drugs of choice for treatment of Ascaris infections, regardless of the species of worm. Infections are generally treated for 1–3 days.
The worms will die after 6 weeks so provided you do not swallow any new eggs then no new worms will grow to replace them. Strict attention to hygiene should be sufficient. Piperazine (Pripsen) is a different medicine, and can be used in children under 2 years (but over 3 months).
If you have tried a threadworm treatment for your child and their symptoms have not improved, take them to your GP. The doctor will examine your child and may want to do blood or faeces (poo) tests. Also take your child to the GP if: your child passes a large worm.
The Deworming Process after a Few Days
You may be surprised to still see live worms in your dog's feces after deworming them, but this is normal. While this can be an unpleasant image, it's actually a good thing — it means the worms are no longer living inside your dog!
You'll likely need to give your doctor a stool sample for a few months to make sure all the worms are gone.
Reinfection does happen with pinworm
Eggs are swallowed, usually after hand-to-mouth contact, and the pinworm infection begins again. Pinworm eggs may spread to shared surfaces, such as bedding, curtains, toilets, doorknobs, towels, utensils, and furniture. These areas should be kept clean to avoid reinfection.
COMBANTRIN® is a highly effective treatment to rid the body of threadworm infections – just one dosage of COMBANTRIN® or COMBANTRIN®-1 kills adult worms within the body, either through paralysis with COMBANTRIN® or by preventing them from absorbing the glucose they need to survive – with COMBANTRIN®-1.
Be aware: You can worm your dog too often
And it has no obvious benefit. In fact, over-worming your dog can actually backfire, and make your dog build up a tolerance – you most certainly don't want that.
2. Take the correct dewormer. When infected with worms, it should be dewormed periodically, for adults and children over 2 years old should be dewormed 2 to 3 times a year, ie every 4 to 6 months.
Worms are a very common source of illness for both adults and children, so experts recommend that deworming should be done two times a year, or every six months, beginning at the age of two years.
The worms are white and look like small pieces of thread. You may notice them around your child's bottom or in their poo. They don't always cause symptoms, but people often experience itchiness around their bottom or vagina. It can be worse at night and disturb sleep.
The medicine should start to work straight away but it may take several days to kill all the worms. It's important to take the medicine as a pharmacist or doctor tells you. Do not stop early if you have been told to take it for several days.
Earthworms can easily overpopulate
Additionally, if there are too many earthworms in one area, they can actually eat all the organic matter in the soil, which may leave plants without enough to feed off of.
If pinworm infection occurs again, the infected person should be retreated with the same two-dose treatment. The infected person's household contacts and caretakers also should be treated. If pinworm infection continues to occur, the source of the infection should be sought and treated.
Mebendazole acts by stopping the threadworms from absorbing vital nutrients such as sugars while they are in the gut, which leads to the starvation and death of the worms within a few days. Piperazine acts by paralyzing the worms which are then passed out of the body in the stool.
Whilst this makes sense operationally it means that some people are not getting enough drugs to actually kill the worms. Over time this sup-optimal dosage potentially leaves the door open for the parasites to develop resistance to the deworming drugs.
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: after going to the toilet.