Once ingested, cysticerci attach to the small intestine and develop into adult tapeworms over the course of 2 months.
To diagnose a tapeworm infection, doctors will collect and examine a stool sample on 3 different days to check for tapeworm eggs or pieces of worm. They may also do a blood test. If a child could have cysticercosis, the doctor might recommend a CT (CAT) scan or MRI of the brain or other organs to look for cysts.
Many times, people can be infected for long periods of time without even knowing they have a tapeworm infection. While viral or bacterial infections can disappear in a matter of days or weeks, a tapeworm could be with you for years.
Tapeworms have a three-stage lifecycle: egg, an immature stage called a larva, and an adult stage at which the worm can produce more eggs. Because larvae can get into the muscles of their hosts, infection can occur when you eat raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal.
The pork, beef, and fish tapeworms are large, flat, ribbon-like worms that live in the intestine of people and can grow 15 to 30 feet (4.5 to 9 meters) in length. People are considered the definitive host because adult tapeworms live in their intestine.
A tapeworm in the intestines often causes mild symptoms. Moderate to severe symptoms may include stomach pain and diarrhea. Larval cysts can cause serious disease if they are in a person's brain, liver, lungs, heart or eyes.
At night, female worms come outside to lay eggs in the skin around your anus. If you scratch the area, the eggs get on your fingers or under your nails, then wipe off on the next thing you touch.
The mature tapeworms attach to your intestinal walls and absorb nutrients from the food digesting there. These tapeworms often cause no noticeable symptoms, and many people don't realize they're infected. However, a severe infection can cause nutritional deficiencies, unexplained weight loss, nausea or diarrhea.
Left untreated, adult tapeworms can live in a host body for up to 30 years. Their length varies, but they can grow to be anywhere from 6 to 22 feet.
If meat or fish have larvae cysts and are undercooked or raw, the cysts can travel to the human intestine, where they can mature into adult tapeworms. An adult tapeworm can : live as long as 25 years.
Tapeworms are common parasitic afflictions that cats and dogs alike can come down with. These white parasites can be found around dog feces, in a cat's litter box or even on sofas and pet bedding. Tapeworms can look similar to little grains of rice or longer spaghetti-like segments.
Taeniasis can cause mild and non-specific symptoms, including abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation when the tapeworms become fully developed in the intestine.
Tapeworms are the flatworms that live in the human digestive tract. If you suspect you might have tapeworms, you need to visit a doctor for stool sample analysis, a blood test, and imaging tests.
Your health care provider treats a tapeworm infection in the intestines with anti-parasitic drugs. These include: Praziquantel (Biltricide). Albendazole.
Tapeworms can be contagious for humans and other pets. Humans rarely contract dipylidium caninum, as it requires ingesting fleas, but this parasite can spread to other household dogs through the intermediate flea host. Cats can contract some species of tapeworms, like taenia species.
Eat more raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have been used traditionally to kill parasites. In one study, researchers found that a mixture of honey and papaya seeds cleared stools of parasites in 23 out of 30 subjects. Drink a lot of water to help flush out your system.
But could a tapeworm really be lured out of a person with a lump of meat? Not really, according to Brian Louden, from Science Channel's MythBusters. “Luckily, this entire idea is from the imagination of a creative individual who took already scream-inducing diseases and created a terrifying chimera,” he told TheWrap.
Complications of tapeworm infections
This can happen if tiny bits of poo of someone with this tapeworm get into your mouth. It can't happen from eating pork. Depending on where they form, the cysts can cause problems such as: headaches and fits (seizures)
Tapeworm infection is usually diagnosed when the moving segments are seen crawling around the anus or in a bowel movement.
Sometimes, individuals with taeniasis can see tapeworm segments (called proglottids) being passed through the anus and in the stool. Taeniasis can lead to urticaria, an itchy rash of weals and hives.
In rare cases, tapeworm segments become lodged in the appendix, or the bile and pancreatic ducts. Infection with T. solium tapeworms can result in human cysticercosis, which can be a very serious disease that can cause seizures and muscle or eye damage.
How common is taeniasis? Approximately 50 million persons are infected with both parasites worldwide; some 50,000 die of cysticercosis annually.
The CDC estimated that fewer than 1,000 people in the United States are infected with a tapeworm each year.
The best way to diagnose this infection is to do a tape test. The best time to do this is in the morning before bathing, because pinworms lay their eggs at night. Steps for the test are: Firmly press the sticky side of a 1-inch (2.5 centimeters) strip of cellophane tape over the anal area for a few seconds.