Bovine, or unarmed, tapeworm is a parasite that infects cattle, but only a person can be the final "owner". The worm in the body of livestock lives in the larval stage, and in the human body - in the tape. Parasites in humans in the small intestine.
Morphology
Bull tapeworm is a representative of the genus of flatworms. The minimum length is 4 meters, the maximum is 12 meters. Although there were cases when the parasite reached 22 meters.
The width of the worm is not more than 7 mm, the thickness is 2 mm. The body has a flat ribbon-like shape. This structure allows you to extract useful substances from the human intestine without any problems.
The parasite has no digestive system, no anus, no mouth. As a matter of fact, he does not need them, since the food extracted from the host's body is already digested. Consumption occurs through a flat membrane. The diet of the worm is represented mainly by polysaccharides, mainly glucose, which is extremely important for the existence of the parasite.
The bovine tapeworm is a hermaphrodite. The uterus is represented by a closed cycle. Both sexualsystems are located in the middle third of the strobila.
As the number of eggs increases, the uterus increases in size. Outgrowths appear on the sides, about 20-30 pieces. They contain from 50 to 150 thousand larvae that do not need to ripen in a third-party environment. Such a huge number is due to the fact that the eggs do not ripen evenly.
Eggs are rounded, embryo contains 3 hooks.
Over time, the segments, which are located in the lower part of the strobila, are slightly extended, disconnected and move forward, having passed the human intestine, they exit through the anus into the external environment. Some segments are very passive and move along with food, while others move independently towards the anus.
Daily, an infected person sheds between 1 and 20 segments. At the same time, the worm itself does not become shorter, its neck is constantly growing. The parasite can live in the human body for about 15 years.
Life cycle of the ox tapeworm
Despite the fact that helminths are protozoa, the worm goes through a rather complicated life cycle, changing two owners.
The first owner is cattle and not necessarily domestic - it can be buffaloes, deer and yaks living in freedom.
After the release of the segments from the human body, proglottids can even move through the ground and grass for some time, spreading eggs. In the external environment, without a host, the larvae live for about a month. As soon as the animal consumes the grass with the egg, everything starts again.
The parasite enters the gastrointestinallivestock tract, under the influence of enzymes, the shell of the egg is destroyed. The hatched larvae can even enter the bloodstream and thus move throughout the animal's body, including muscle tissue and organs. The parasite can live in his body for up to 3 years.
If the infected meat undergoes poor heat treatment, then fully formed larvae do not die, but enter the body of the final host. The gastric juice of the esophagus destroys the protective membrane, and the parasite is attached to the walls of the intestine with three suction cups.
Maturation to an adult occurs fairly quickly. After 3 months, the length of the parasite can reach 5 meters. After puberty, the worm begins to multiply.
Geographic distribution
Infection of a human with a bovine tapeworm most often occurs in countries where a lot of beef is consumed for religious or other reasons, in countries where sanitary standards are poorly observed.
Taeniarhynchosis is a common disease in Africa, Latin America and the Philippines. In the European part of our continent, cases of infection are most often recorded in Slovakia and Turkey. According to various estimates, from 40 to 60 million people are infected in the world.
Symptomatics
Symptoms of bovine tapeworm in humans are very diverse. Some people do not even suspect the presence of helminths in their body for years, while others have a severe disease. But there is one symptom that is typical for all patients - severe itching in the anus, oftenleading to the development of neurotic pathologies.
Gastrointestinal tract
This is the place where the worms live, so most of the problems are in this area. First of all, motor skills are impaired. Often there is catarrh associated with the presence of a parasite inside the intestines.
Infected people are often bothered by heaviness in the stomach, even when fasting. Heartburn and belching become a constant companion, regardless of food intake. May increase salivation and torment the feeling of nausea, up to vomiting.
If pain in the stomach is observed, then they do not have a clear localization. Cramping sensations can be observed if the parasite tries to penetrate from the small intestine into the large intestine.
Defecation is unstable: either constipation or diarrhea.
It is not uncommon for a duodenal ulcer to develop against the background of the presence of a parasite. If a bull tapeworm gets into a ball, then intestinal obstruction develops.
General Condition
The presence of a parasite in the body can be suspected by external signs. The worm absorbs almost all the beneficial substances that the stomach produces in the process of digesting food, so infected people often have poor hair and nails. Inflammatory processes constantly occur on the skin, the cover becomes dry. Toxic substances of the worm can cause the development of allergies. Urticarial exanthema, that is, a rash with a dry crust, may appear.
At the same time, a person is constantly hungry, buteating more and more food, does not get better, and there is even a decrease in body weight.
Increased fatigue, irritability and insomnia can speak of intoxication of the body. Some infected individuals even experience epileptic seizures.
Patients develop tongue enlargement or cracks.
Other manifestations of the disease
A sign of tapeworm may be an increase in blood pressure and increased heart rate. This condition may be accompanied by tachycardia, the appearance of tinnitus and flies before the eyes.
If segments appear in the vomit, it means that they got into the middle ear. Anemia is not uncommon.
Teniarinhoz is very dangerous for pregnant women, since in most cases women cannot bear a child with such a "neighbor" in the body.
However, all and once the symptoms of bovine tapeworm appear very rarely. As a rule, their number increases depending on the duration of the disease, the longer a person is not treated, the more signs of pathology.
You should know that it is impossible to get infected from the carrier of tapeworm, the worm for development and growth necessarily requires an intermediate host - an animal. At the same time, the degree of perception of the parasite by the human body is very high.
Possible risks
As a rule, serious diseases develop when the worm enters the abdominal cavity. In this case, there is a huge risk of mechanical intestinal obstruction, the development of cholecystitis and fatty necrosis of the pancreas. It is possible the appearance of pancreatitis and exacerbationappendicitis.
Diagnostic measures
Identification of bovine tapeworm in humans is a rather difficult task. The disease has no specific symptoms, so at the first stage, the doctor has to conduct a very delicate survey.
If there are certain suspicions, a laboratory analysis of feces is prescribed.
In some cases, additional research is being carried out:
- Kato method;
- flotation method Kalantaryan;
- imprint on sticky tape;
- perianal-rectal scraping.
In some cases, it is not possible to determine whether it is bovine or pork tapeworm, which is very important for prescribing treatment. In this case, a laboratory study of the joints is carried out.
Contrast radiography of the small intestine can confirm the presence of a worm in the body. In the photo, the bovine tapeworm looks like light stripes on the small intestine.
In the presence of worms in the blood, the eosinophil count may increase, but this is the so-called temporary symptom, so a complete blood count is not mandatory for diagnostic measures.
Treatment
As usual, the treatment of bovine tapeworm is carried out on an outpatient basis, but sometimes in a hospital. The essence of therapy is the use of antiparasitic drugs. Treatment is carried out exclusively under the supervision of doctors, with the determination of the effectiveness of the prescribed therapy.
Drug therapy
The most common drug in the treatment of taeniarhynchus is"Fenasal", "Biltricid" is prescribed as an additional drug. The drugs are taken once, the dosage should be determined by the doctor, depending on the age, weight of the patient and other factors. As a rule, the helminth comes out on its own, without any additional measures, through the anus.
Before and during treatment, you will have to follow a sparing diet: no alcohol, fatty, smoked and fried foods. Sweets and a number of vegetables are also banned: cabbage, beets, legumes and others. Meals should be fractional, at least 5 times, but in small portions.
Your doctor may prescribe cleansing enemas or laxatives.
Effectiveness of therapy is determined by fecal analysis. For 4 months, no segments should be observed in the stool. If they are found, then the course of treatment is repeated. It is encouraging that, as a rule, the forecast is favorable.
There are other drugs, Niclosamide, Praziquantel, but self-medication is not recommended, all anthelmintic drugs are very toxic.
Phytomedications
Preparations with natural ingredients are widely represented on the pharmaceutical market. As a rule, they include more than 10 anthelmintic herbs, from oak bark to chamomile and cudweed.
Treatment with natural preparations is long, but it has no contraindications and side effects, provided that there is no allergy to herbs. That is, it is possible to be treated with herbal remedies during pregnancy and in childhood.
Folk ways
Some people tryavoid pharmaceutical drugs, use folk remedies and, according to them, they even manage to get rid of the bull tapeworm. To date, there are three ways that really help.
- Pumpkin seeds. Peel unroasted seeds and try to leave a film. For the whole day you can not use anything except seeds, even water. Before going to bed, you need to drink a laxative and do not eat anymore.
- Pomegranate peel. It will take 50 grams of drained and ground crusts, which should be poured with boiling water (400 grams) and infused for 6 hours. After that, put the tincture on fire and boil to a volume of 200 ml. Drink the resulting solution for an hour, and after 30 minutes drink a laxative. For 4 hours you can not eat and drink, as soon as the time is up, you need to make a cleansing enema.
- S alted fish. You should eat as much fish as you can fit into your stomach and do not drink water for 3 hours. Then drink a laxative.
Whatever method is chosen from folk or traditional medicine, it should be ensured that the bovine tapeworm comes out completely (most importantly, with the head). A photo of the parasite can be found in the article.
Rules of conduct after treatment
As soon as the worm is finished, you should not relax, it will take time for the body to recover. It is recommended to abandon harmful products, fried and fatty foods. Be sure to watch your underwear, especially if you are doing treatment at home, no suspicious dischargefrom the anus should not be. If everything is fine for 3-4 months, only then can we talk about a complete recovery.
Do not forget about personal hygiene, heat the meat well, refuse to eat steaks and kebabs, meat with blood.
When purchasing meat, inspect it well, sometimes worm larvae can be seen with the naked eye.
