Strict hygiene measures can help clear up a threadworm infection and reduce the likelihood of reinfection. The lifespan of threadworms is approximately 6 weeks, so it's important that hygiene measures are followed for at least this length of time.
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).
However, hygiene measures alone may work. 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 live for about 5-6 weeks in the gut, and then die. Before they die, the female worms lay tiny eggs around the anus (back passage). This tends to occur at night when you are warm and still in bed.
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.
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.
Strict hygiene measures can help clear up a threadworm infection and reduce the likelihood of reinfection. The lifespan of threadworms is approximately 6 weeks, so it's important that hygiene measures are followed for at least this length of time.
Chlorine dioxide gas inactivates pinworm eggs in a non-invasive and non-corrosive manner.
Parasites can live in the intestines for years without causing symptoms.
A hot water wash, or the heat of an iron, will kill the eggs. Do not shake bed linen indoors as this can spread eggs around. Shower each morning, and wash around anus.
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.
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.
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.
Pinworm eggs can cling to surfaces, including toys, faucets, bedding and toilet seats, for two weeks. So besides regular cleaning of surfaces, methods to help prevent the spread of pinworm eggs or to prevent reinfection include: Wash in the morning.
Female threadworms lay an average of 11,000 tiny eggs, which are invisible to the naked eye. She lays these eggs outside the anus, or, in girls, around the vagina and urethra. Eggs are usually laid at night whilst the child sleeps.
You'll likely need to give your doctor a stool sample for a few months to make sure all the worms are gone. It's harder to treat an infection caused by tapeworm cysts. In addition to the medicine that kills the tapeworm, you may need medicine to reduce inflammation or other symptoms, like seizures, that you're having.
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.
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. Deworming is the process of eliminating intestinal parasites, such as worms, using medication.
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.
"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."
If the skin is irritated a dilute mild antiseptic can help. Applying Vaseline to the skin after cleaning can help protect the skin and prevent the eggs sticking.
After taking the pinworm medicine, itching should stop in 5 to 7 days.