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 pass to other people when they touch these surfaces and then touch their mouth. They take around 2 weeks to hatch. Children can get threadworms again after they've been treated for them if they get the eggs in their mouth. This is why it's important to encourage children to wash their hands regularly.
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.
Are threadworms harmful? Not usually. The worst thing about them is the itch and discomfort around the anus. This sometimes wakes children from sleep.
Do not let your child use scented or coloured toilet paper. Put ice or a cold pack on the area for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Put a thin cloth between the ice and your child's skin. Use zinc oxide, petroleum jelly, or hydrocortisone cream on the area.
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.
To remove threadworm eggs and prevent re-infection: Change and wash underwear, nightwear and, if possible bed linen and towels, every day for a few days. A hot water wash, or the heat of an iron, will kill the eggs.
"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."
A person is infected with pinworms by ingesting pinworm eggs either directly or indirectly. These eggs are deposited around the anus by the worm and can be carried to common surfaces such as hands, toys, bedding, clothing, and toilet seats.
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.
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.
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.
Also take your child to the GP if: your child passes a large worm • they have abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or low energy levels. Threadworm is common in preschool and school-aged children. Threadworm causes very annoying itching in the area between a child's buttocks.
When the eggs are scratched off onto the hands or under the nails they can be transferred to other children at home or at school, or to adults. Most often they go to the scratching child's mouth where they can be swallowed and start another infection, known as an “auto infection”.
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.
For the itching, wash the skin around the anus with warm water. For severe itch, use 1% hydrocortisone cream (such as Cortaid) 2 times per day. Use for 1 or 2 days. No prescription is needed.
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).
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.
This is why you may need to take another dose 2 weeks later to help prevent reinfection. How long does it take to work? 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.
Threadworm causes a very itchy bottom, which is usually worse at night. If your child is infected with threadworm, it is not usually serious and can be treated easily with medication.
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.
You don't need to keep your child off school if they have threadworms. Speak to your pharmacist, who can recommend a treatment.