Prevention. 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.
Keep your child's and your own fingernails short. Change bed linen, towels and underwear daily for several days after treatment. Bedlinen and clothing should be machine-washed in hot water to ensure that all the eggs are killed.
Consult your pharmacist if you are pregnant or breastfeeding before taking worming medicine. On the same day as you take the medicine you should wash clothes, pyjamas, sheets and pillow cases in hot water.
If anyone in your home has pinworms, take these steps to get rid of the pinworm eggs. Doing so will minimize your chances of reinfection. Wash all the sheets, blankets, towels, and clothing in the house in hot water. Carefully clean everyone's fingernails (which may hold the worm eggs) and cut them short.
Where should you start when it comes to cleaning your home post-pinworm infection? For several days after treatment, it is important to clean the bedroom floors, either by vacuuming or damp mopping. After treatment has been administered, you should also wash all bed linens in hot water.
Pinworm eggs become infective within a few hours after being deposited on the skin around the anus and can survive for 2 to 3 weeks on clothing, bedding, or other objects.
In order to stop the spread of pinworm and possible re-infection, people who are infected should shower every morning to help remove a large amount of the eggs on the skin. Showering is a better method than taking a bath, because showering avoids potentially contaminating the bath water with pinworm eggs.
Pinworm eggs can also be transferred to the fingers from clothing or bedding, and then spread around the home. Eggs may be inhaled from the air or deposited onto food and swallowed. Pinworms can survive up to two weeks on clothing, bedding or other objects, if kept at room temperature.
They can be found in house dust, on toilet seats, bed linens and toys and in play areas in or outside the home. Although pinworms only grow in humans, the eggs can be carried in a pet's fur.
Do not fan or fluff the bedding of a person with pinworms. Doing this can release pinworm eggs into the air. You can swallow eggs that are in the air when you breathe through your mouth.
What is the best time of the day to deworm? The time to deworm yourself is in the morning on an empty stomach. This is because the medicine can directly act on the worms in the absence of food.
Modern dewormers do not require the user to be on an empty stomach before deworming, so users can deworm at any time, but the best time is to drink early in the morning on an empty stomach or drink after dinner about 2 hours .
After taking deworming medicine, about 8 - 12 hours the medicine will take effect. About 24-72 hours later, the drug will kill the worms. Currently, most of the dewormers available on the market are fast acting with high efficiency.
Chlorine dioxide gas inactivates pinworm eggs in a non-invasive and non-corrosive manner.
The female adult worms leave the anus in the middle of the night while the person is sleeping to deposit her eggs around the skin of the perianal region. The eggs become infectious within a couple of hours after being deposited and can survive for about 2 weeks outside the host.
Wash in hot water
The Worldwide Health Organization (WHO) recommends water between the temperatures of 60–90° C (140–194° F).
❖ Change and wash underwear, nightwear (and bed linen if possible) each day. Avoid shaking clothes and linen as any eggs on them may be wafted into the air and be swallowed. ❖ Also, each day for the same 14 days it is advisable to: Vacuum and dust all household carpets, particularly those where children play.
To help prevent re-infection follow these rules: • Consult your physician to treat pinworms with medication. using the toilet. Daily morning bathing with showers (or stand up baths) is preferred to tub baths. washing machine set on the hot cycle can destroy eggs.
A person will remain infectious for as long as there are worms laying eggs on the skin around his or her rectum. Pinworm eggs can remain infectious in an indoor environment for two to three weeks. How is a person diagnosed?
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.
An adult pinworm generally is 1/4 to 1/2 inch (about 6 to 13 millimeters) in length. The most common symptom of infection is anal itching, particularly at night, as worms migrate to the host's anal area to lay their eggs.
After taking the pinworm medicine, itching should stop in 5 to 7 days.
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.
Keep fingernails short. Daily bathing and showering. Wash all sheets, bed linen, pyjamas and sleepwear in hot water to kill any pinworm eggs. Clean toilet seats and potties regularly with disinfectant (remember to store the disinfectant out of reach of children).
Many anti-worm preparations, for example pyrantel (e.g. brand names Anthel, Combantrin and Early Bird) and mebendazole (e.g. Combantrin-1 with Mebendazole, Vermox) can be bought over-the-counter at pharmacies. However, some are only available on prescription, such as albendazole (Zentel).