According to the World Health Organization, approximately 90% of the world's population is infected with one type of parasite or another. Only about 250 types of worms (helminths) can live in the human body, but in addition to them there are also protozoa (amoeba, lamblia and others), arthropods, insect larvae and many other parasites.
Most often, residents of large cities are infected with banal worms, roundworms and tapeworms, dangerous to health and very unpleasant parasites, but only residents of tropical countries and tourists who go on vacation to the south usually encounter truly terrible creatures, which parasitize the human body, America, Africa or Australia.
Every day, every person encounters a huge number of parasites; you can become infected with worms by eating food or drinking water with eggs or larvae of parasites, through close contact with a parasite carrier (animal or person), less often, infection occurs through household objects or insect bites.
The most common parasites
- Roundworms- representatives of this type of worms are diagnosed in 100 million people in the world every year. An adult roundworm is a roundworm up to 40 cm long that can exist in a person's intestines for years, feeding on his red blood cells and poisoning the human body with waste products. Female roundworms can lay up to 200, 000 eggs per day, which are excreted in the feces and infect the soil. Ascaris larvae can migrate throughout the body, affecting internal organs, blood vessels and even the human brain.
- Pinworms- small roundworms that live in the large intestine. Pinworm infection is common in childhood; parasites enter the human body when the rules of personal hygiene are not observed (do not wash your hands after going to the toilet, walking and before eating, do not change your underwear on time, lick your fingers and soon). These roundworms do not cause such severe intoxication as other worms, but they can cause the development of diseases such as enterocolitis, vulvovaginitis, salpingitis, cystitis and others. During the reproductive period, adult worms leave the lower parts of the large intestine and lay eggs in the perianal folds, which causes severe itching in the child, which is the main symptom of a worm infection.
- Beef and pork tapewormare large tapeworms, the length of which can reach 10 m. Despite such impressive sizes, tapeworms are not considered the largest and longest parasites. The longest worm in the world, the broad tapeworm, can reach a length of up to 25 m. Infection with parasites occurs when eating poorly processed meat or through contact and household contacts. The tapeworm not only causes intoxication and exhaustion of the host's body, but can also cause blockage of the bile ducts or intestinal obstruction. No less dangerous are the larvae of the worms, which penetrate the internal organs, the brain and even the eyeballs.
- Giardia- protozoa or protozoan parasites that live in the human small intestine. Contagion with protozoa is possible by consuming food or water contaminated with cysts. Diagnosing a Giardia infection is quite difficult, as there are no specific symptoms of the disease. The sick person feels constantly bad, often gets sick or is diagnosed with symptoms of various diseases of the internal organs.
Which parasites are considered the most dangerous?
Representatives of the following species are considered the most terrible and dangerous parasites in the world: filaria, schistosomes, guinea worms, cysticerci, toxoplasma, loa loa and some other less common parasites.
Filariae
Filariae are round and long worms, their length is about 45 cm; you can become infected with filaria larvae through the bite of blood-sucking insects; mosquitoes usually carry the larvae and, less commonly, other insects. Filariae penetrate the lymphatic vessels and clog them. As a result of infection, a person's lower limbs swell so much that he loses the ability to move independently.
"Elephant disease" is widespread in hot countries, affecting both local residents and tourists, the latter in a more severe form. This disease is considered particularly dangerous due to the difficulties in diagnosis and treatment - the disease becomes noticeable only whenchronic, which is almost impossible to cure.
Schistosomes
Schistosomes are a special type of worm that live in human blood vessels. Small flatworms up to 2 mm long enter the human body when swimming or drinking water contaminated with parasitic cercariae.
Schistosomiasis is primarily a tropical disease that is contracted by swimming in open water. Once inside the human body, schistosomes can cause severe damage to the liver, bladder or intestines.
Guinea worm
Guinea worm or dracunculosis is another serious parasitic disease that can be contracted by drinking dirty water in tropical countries. Roundworms, entering the human intestine, literally gnaw through it, then penetrate the lymphatic vessels and subcutaneous fat tissue, where they can grow up to 80 cm in length.
Where the parasites live, deep abscesses appear, inside which one or several large worms are located. Such parasitosis can only be cured surgically.
Loa Loa
Loa Loa or "eyeworm" is a round helminth that parasitizes in the subcutaneous fatty tissue. A person becomes infected through the bite of a blood-sucking insect, which is the intermediate host of the parasite.
Once inside the human body, Loa Loa begins to migrate throughout the body, including penetrating the eyeballs, brain or nervous tissue.
Vandelia with a mustache
Unlike other parasites, it belongs to freshwater fish and lives in the rivers of the Amazon. A fairly large fish - up to 15 cm long, due to its transparency and eel-like shape, is almost invisible in the water and quietly swims to its victims. Whiskered Vandelia can swim into the human urethra, attach itself to the wall of a blood vessel and suck the blood, literally eating its owner from the inside. You can get rid of such a parasite only through a major operation.
Anyone can get infected with parasites, hundreds of thousands of dangerous parasites lurk for each of us: in water, soil, on the leaves of trees, in public transport, seafood, on fresh vegetables and fruits. That is why it is so important to observe all sanitary and hygienic rules and to teach children the rules of personal hygiene as early as possible.
The entry of most parasites into the human body goes completely unnoticed; the first symptoms of the disease appear only a few weeks or months after infection. The symptoms of parasitosis can be different: from mild malaise and headache to a sharp worsening of the condition, fever and hemoptysis.
Only constant monitoring of your health, regular medical examinations and extreme care when visiting tropical countries will help you avoid infection with the most terrible parasites, or at least diagnose such an infection in time.