The most serious symptoms happen when tapeworm larvae invade parts of your body outside the intestines. You may have serious problems with your nervous system, including seizures, or you could get headaches, masses or lumps, allergic reactions to the larvae, or problems with your vision.
Tapeworm infections usually don't cause complications. Problems that may happen include: Anemia. Long-term infection with a fish tapeworm may lead to the body not making enough healthy red blood cells, also called anemia.
If your doctor confirms you have a tapeworm infection, follow their instructions to lessen the risk of complications. If left untreated, there's the risk of developing an invasive infection which can affect your tissue and organs. This can lead to brain swelling, inflammation, and intestinal blockage.
For a tapeworm infection, you might first see your primary physician. However, in some cases, he or she may refer you to a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases or a doctor who specializes in disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (gastroenterologist).
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.
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.
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.
Not usually. In fact, a tapeworm is more likely to make you lose your appetite. That's because the worm can irritate your bowels when it attaches to them with its circular suckers (and, in some cases, its movable hooks).
They live in your intestines and feed off the nutrients you eat. Symptoms can include nausea, weakness, diarrhea and fatigue, or you may not have symptoms. You may see eggs or worm pieces in your poop. Once you find a tapeworm, it's easy to get rid of it.
Another less common group of tapeworms called Echinococcus is of increasing concern as a threat to human health. These tapeworms cause serious, potentially fatal disease when humans become infected.
Tapeworms are usually treated with a medicine taken by mouth. The most commonly used medicine for tapeworms is praziquantel (Biltricide). These medications paralyze the tapeworms, which let go of the intestine, dissolve, and pass from your body with bowel movements.
The most common tapeworm infection in Australia is caused by dwarf tapeworm. There is also a risk in Australia of contracting a serious condition called hydatid disease from the eggs of a type of tapeworm called Echinococcus granulosus found in dog faeces (poo).
Diagnosis for tapeworm infection is usually done through detection of eggs and proglottids (worm segments) via a stool test, although many patients' tapeworms are detected when they find proglottids in their own stool or in the toilet. It's not possible to determine which species of tapeworm is present without testing.
Eating affected meat or fish
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.
You can have pain in your belly, and diarrhea. And, you may crave salt.
Seizures and headaches are the most common symptoms. However, confusion, lack of attention to people and surroundings, difficulty with balance, excess fluid around the brain (called hydrocephalus) may also occur. The disease can result in death.
Once ingested, cysticerci attach to the small intestine and develop into adult tapeworms over the course of 2 months. The adult tapeworms produce proglottids that mature, detach, and migrate to the anus and are then passed in the feces.
Sometimes worms are visible in the anal area, on underwear, or in the toilet. In stool, they look like small pieces of white cotton thread.
Symptoms may include diarrhoea, tiredness and weakness, abdominal pain and weight loss. Some worms cause anaemia.
You might have anal itching, especially at night. You could also have stomach pain, nausea, or vaginal itching. Sometimes pinworms can be seen around your anus or on your underwear or bed sheets about 2 to 3 hours after you've gone to bed.
"It's very rare, particularly in Australia. There's only one documented case of a type of fish tapeworm in Australia," Dr Ho said. "But in other countries, particularly in the northern hemisphere, people do get them."
Yes; however, the risk of infection with this tapeworm in humans is very low. For a person to become infected with Dipylidium, he or she must accidentally swallow an infected flea. Most reported cases involve children. The most effective way to prevent infections in pets and humans is through flea control.
In general, the mode of tapeworm transmission from pet to person is due to close physical contact such as allowing a pet to lick you or letting it sleep on your bed which causes accidental ingestion of the tapeworm eggs.
Clinical diagnosis is usually made by observing the white, mobile tapeworm segments in the feces or crawling around the anus. These segments look like grains of white rice or cucumber seeds.