Tissue under the skin is infiltrated by developing larvae of the parasitic worm known as Dracunculus medinensis, or Guinea worm.
People with loiasis can have itching all over the body (even when they do not have Calabar swellings), hives, muscle pains, joint pains, and tiredness. Sometimes adult worms can be seen moving under the skin. High numbers of blood cells called eosinophils are sometimes found on blood counts.
Parasites on the skin are usually small insects or worms that burrow into the skin to live there or lay their eggs.
Common parasitic skin diseases include creeping eruption, lice, and scabies.
The treatment of choice is diethylcarbamazine (DEC), which kills the microfilariae and adult worms. Albendazole is sometimes used in patients who are not cured with multiple DEC treatments. It is thought to kill adult worms. Certain people with heavy infections are at risk of brain inflammation when treated with DEC.
It can be caused by exposure to moist sand that has been contaminated by infected dog or cat stool. It appears as a winding, snakelike rash with blisters and itching. It may be treated with antiparasitic medicines.
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.
Young roundworms can move through a person's skin and eventually into the bloodstream to the lungs and airways. They then move up to the throat, where they are swallowed into the stomach.
The initial sign of acute strongyloidiasis, if noticed at all, is a localized pruritic, erythematous rash at the site of skin penetration. Patients may then develop tracheal irritation and a dry cough as the larvae migrate from the lungs up through the trachea.
Albendazole and mebendazole are sometimes used in Strongyloides stercoralis infection, but results are varied. Ivermectin is more effective than albendazole. The disseminated disease should be treated with ivermectin. For those too sick to tolerate oral ivermectin, subcutaneous or rectal dosing may be effective.
Ingestion of contaminated water causes the larvae to migrate from the intestines via the abdominal cavity to the tissue under the skin. The larvae mature and release a toxic substance that makes the overlying skin ulcerate. After treatment, symptoms disappear and the worms can be safely removed from the skin.
Pinworms are thin and white, measuring about 1/4 to 1/2 inch (about 6 to 13 millimeters) in length. While the infected person sleeps, female pinworms lay thousands of eggs in the folds of skin surrounding the anus.
Both threadworms and hookworms infect by skin penetration and target some of the same host species. However, they are evolutionarily distant and are phylogenetically grouped into distinct clades (47, 49).
Threadworms (come out of the anus at night to lay their eggs between the buttocks, causing extreme itching. They look like small white threads moving about and may be seen with a torch. The threadworms may also be seen on the surface of the stools (poo) if a person has a heavy infestation.
Creeping eruption is a skin infection caused by hookworms. The infection is also called cutaneous larva migrans or sandworm disease. Creeping eruption causes severe itching, blisters, and a red growing, winding rash. The rash can grow up to 1 to 2 centimeters per day.
People are infected when animal hookworm larvae penetrate the skin, causing a local reaction that is red and itchy. Raised, red tracks appear in the skin where the larvae have been and these tracks may move in the skin day to day, following the larvae's movements.
Anthelminthic medications (drugs that rid the body of parasitic worms), such as albendazole and mebendazole, are the drugs of choice for treatment of hookworm infections. Infections are generally treated for 1-3 days.
The microscopic scabies mite burrows into the upper layer of the skin where it lives and lays its eggs. The most common symptoms of scabies are intense itching and a pimple-like skin rash.
The majority of people infected with Strongyloides do not have symptoms. Those who do develop symptoms often have non-specific, or generalized complaints. Some people develop abdominal pain, bloating, heartburn, intermittent episodes of diarrhea and constipation, a dry cough, and skin rashes.
Body louse eggs (nits) are small, white and oval-shaped. Lice lay their eggs in the seams of any clothing worn next to the skin, such as underwear. A gluey secretion anchors each egg to clothing fibres, or sometimes to body hairs.
These worms live in the intestine. 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.
Itching during the night in a child's perianal area strongly suggests pinworm infection. Diagnosis is made by identifying the worm or its eggs. Worms can sometimes be seen on the skin near the anus or on underclothing, pajamas, or sheets about 2 to 3 hours after falling 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)
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.
Transmission of Infection
The simplest is by accidental ingestion of infective eggs (Ascaris, Echinococcus, Enterobius, Trichuris) or larvae (some hookworms). Other worms have larvae that actively penetrate the skin (hookworms, schistosomes, Strongyloides).