Enterobiasis In Adults - Signs, Symptoms And Treatment

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Enterobiasis In Adults - Signs, Symptoms And Treatment
Enterobiasis In Adults - Signs, Symptoms And Treatment

Video: Enterobiasis In Adults - Signs, Symptoms And Treatment

Video: Enterobiasis In Adults - Signs, Symptoms And Treatment
Video: What causes enterobiasis & signs to look out for? - Dr. Rajasekhar M R 2024, March
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Enterobiasis in adults is a parasitic disease that is caused by pinworms. These small worms can enter the body in different ways: by contact with soil, drinking water from natural sources, joint activities with infected people. Pinworms cause various unpleasant symptoms: the sick person has disturbed sleep, appetite, fatigue, nervousness, irritability, and indigestion. The main thing is to recognize the signs of ascariasis in time and start treatment in a timely manner.

The content of the article:

  • 1 What is enterobiasis in adults
  • 2 Symptoms - enterobiasis in adults
  • 3 Diagnostics - enterobiasis in adults
  • 4 Swab for enterobiasis in adults
  • 5 Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
  • 6 Medicines against enterobiasis for adults
  • 7 Complications of enterobiasis in adults

What is enterobiasis in adults

Enterobiasis in adults is a common helminthiasis caused by pinworms and is characterized by intestinal damage, severe itching around the anus and severe allergy to the patient's body.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

This parasitic disease is more common in children and is extremely easily transmitted through dirty hands, which is why enterobiasis is often called “dirty hands disease”. Pinworms can contribute to the development of pyelonephritis cystitis, bedwetting, masturbation.

The source of the invasion is a sick person. Pinworm eggs, laid on his skin, fall on bedding, on household items, on the floor, are carried by flies on the surface of open foods, kitchen utensils. After 4-6 hours, they are ready to give life to new helminths.

The pinworm is a small, grayish-white roundworm about 1 cm long, one end of the helminth is twisted, the other spindle-pointed. Pinworms parasitize in the human small intestine, in its lower parts, where there are enough nutrients for the helminth that do not need to be digested.

Enterobiasis in adults most often develops after contact with their own children. After all, it is the kids, playing in the sand and putting dirty hands and things in their mouths, that get pinworm worms, which, once inside, begin to parasitize in the intestines.

The total life span of the parasite is, on average, 3-4 weeks and can reach 75 days, and then the male pinworms die. For laying eggs, sexually mature females descend into the rectum and emerge on the surface of the skin of the perianal region, perineum and thighs. This usually happens at night, when, for physiological reasons, the pulses that close the anus relax and it is easier for the helminth to get out. Having laid eggs, females also die.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

With such a short life cycle of pinworms, the disease can last for years, due to the ease of re-infection, or rather self-infection. The severe itching that accompanies the disease forces you to scratch the egg-laying sites. Eggs fall on hands, clog under the nails. With dirty hands, they are brought back into the mouth. Infection is facilitated by violation of the rules of personal and intimate hygiene, bad habits, for example, biting nails, pencils.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

Once in the mouth, pinworms are swallowed with food or saliva and end up in the digestive tract. Having reached the small intestine, they stick to its walls, and sometimes even penetrate it. This leads to the occurrence of punctate hemorrhages, inflammation and erosion on the intestinal mucosa. The process of absorption of nutrients and vitamins is disrupted.

Enterobiasis in adults. The products of metabolism and decay of dead pinworms, getting into the bloodstream, are carried throughout the body, causing poisoning of tissues and organs and triggering allergic processes. The immune system is activated to fight the parasite and its toxins and begins to produce antibodies.

Since a large amount of toxins is excreted through the skin, with enterobiasis, allergic skin reactions in the form of urticaria often occur.

Female pinworms, in search of a place for laying eggs, can crawl into the female genital organs, carrying on their bodies a huge number of microorganisms from the digestive tract. This is especially dangerous for little girls in whom the protective mechanisms of the vagina have not yet been formed due to age reasons.

Enterobiasis in this case can be accompanied by inflammation of the vulva and vagina, which can lead to rather unpleasant consequences for the child. In addition, pinworms can climb into the appendicular process of the colon and cause the development of appendicitis. Once in the pockets (crypts) of the rectum, they can cause cryptitis.

Symptoms - Enterobiasis in Adults

Often, positive tests for enterobiasis become an unexpected unpleasant surprise, while a person did not even think about the possibility of this disease. Often, an adult becomes infected with enterobiasis from children, both from their own people and when working in a children's team.

Enterobiasis in adults. With a small number of nematodes in the body, a person may experience minor discomfort, which, as a rule, he does not pay attention to, or not feel anything at all.

If there is even the slightest suspicion of the presence of "intruders", you can deprive the females of the opportunity to reproduce, and, therefore, re-infect themselves, observing simple rules: observe intimate hygiene daily, change underwear twice a day, wash your hands thoroughly with soap after using the toilet, and before eating.

In adults, enterobiasis in most cases is asymptomatic or with erased symptoms. Enterobiasis is usually detected by chance, during routine medical examinations.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

Moreover, if you just rinse your hands with water without soap, consider that you do not wash your hands at all. Only soap is able to bind grease and dirt on the skin of the hands and remove them. Washing your hands with soap-free water leaves the grease and dirt on your hands intact.

Such simple hygiene rules will help to cure enterobiasis in the initial stage without the use of drugs. However, in this case, you should not have anyone in your environment who is infected with pinworms.

If the invasion is strong and there are patients with enterobiasis in your environment, the symptoms become bright and the most pronounced of them is severe itching in the anus, which intensifies in the evening, at night or in the early morning. It is provoked by female nematodes that have gone out to lay eggs. This itching can torment a person for only one or two days, but it will recur after two to three weeks - during this time, a change in the generation of pinworms and re-infection occurs.

In addition to itching, there are other symptoms and signs of pinworms:

  • frequent urge to empty the bowels; stool up to four times a day,
  • diarrhea or constipation; the appearance of blood or mucus in the feces,
  • pain in the lower abdomen; with a severe stage of the disease, abdominal pain on the right, similar to pain with appendicitis,
  • nausea; bloating, increased flatulence in the intestines,
  • dysbiosis; an increased number of leukocytes in the blood.

Enterobiasis in adults. If enterobiasis is not treated, in addition to allergies, intoxication and excessive irritability, problems with falling asleep and insomnia, dizziness, headaches, eczema and exacerbation of appendicitis may appear. For women, neglected enterobiasis is dangerous by the appearance of diseases such as vulvovaginitis and endometritis due to the penetration of nematodes into the genital tract.

Diagnostics: enterobiasis in adults

If enterobiasis is suspected, diagnostics should be carried out as soon as possible. The speed and correctness of treatment depends on its results. There are several ways to make a diagnosis.

Enterobiasis in adults. First, it is necessary to pass a fecal analysis, traditional for helminthic invasions. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to be limited. The fact is that it will hardly be possible to detect pinworm eggs in the feces, since they are not in the intestine, but already outside it. However, in some cases, a small amount is still obtained, then the diagnosis becomes clear.

Unlike eggs, pinworms themselves are found in feces quite often. We are talking about dead adults and their remains. However, the absence of such in the sample taken for analysis is not an indicator, no doctor will say that a person is not infected, on the basis of the mere absence of traces of pinworms in the feces.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

Since enterobiasis treatment involves a rather long and difficult, it is best to start it as early as possible, so you should not delay with the analysis. A better diagnosis of enterobiasis is carried out using another special analysis. It's called scraping and is done with duct tape. It is applied to the anal area for a few seconds, and then peeled off. If eggs are present, they will be easily detected.

A better diagnosis of enterobiasis is carried out using another special analysis. It's called scraping and is done with duct tape.

However, scraping for enterobiasis may not show the presence of the parasite. The fact is that females do not lay eggs every day. Therefore, to obtain a reliable result, the analysis is taken several times during a month, most often with breaks a week. However, if the patient is very unwell, the doctor may suggest a different scheme.

Sometimes, with enterobiasis, a blood test is taken. In the early stages of the disease, it shows an increased number of eosinophils. It is also possible to visually inspect the anal area, where you can see not only traces of scratching, but also the nematodes themselves. Their size allows for this.

Enterobiasis smear in adults

If an adult's examination for enterobiasis is required, how is the analysis taken? The rules for taking material and the essence of the analysis do not differ from those in children. A patient should ask how to take it correctly before testing for enterobiasis.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults
Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

Enterobiasis in adults. Many adults deliberately wash themselves before testing or use laxatives to get a negative result. Yes, in this way they will receive a cherished certificate that everything is fine with them.

The patient should know that helminthic invasion often leads to suppression of immunity, disruption of the digestive tract, and allergic diseases.

But this is fraught with the fact that pinworms, if present in the body, will continue to cause pathological processes, leading to complications. Therefore, it is better to treat the disease in time in order to protect both your health and the health of others.

Treatment of enterobiasis in adults

It is necessary to entrust the treatment of enterobiasis to a parasitologist or infectious disease specialist. The specialist will conduct a series of laboratory tests that will help determine the exact picture of the disease. After passing the tests, the doctor will find out what type of parasites attacked the patient. Based on the results, he will prescribe a pinworm medicine.

Enterobiasis in adults. Treatment of pinworm infestation does not require hospitalization in a hospital and is carried out on an outpatient basis, includes a whole range of measures: designation of the circle of contact persons (in the family, at work, in the children's team); subsequent examination for enterobiasis of all contacts; all persons infested with pinworms are subject to simultaneous deworming; a set of preventive measures is taken to prevent re-infection; after the complete completion of the course of treatment, after fifteen days, its effectiveness is monitored.

The main link of therapeutic measures is careful observance of hygiene rules:

  • it is necessary to cut short nails on the hands, eliminate the bad habit of gnawing them, and also wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating and after using the toilet;
  • it is recommended for infested pinworms to wear closed panties with elastic bands at the top and bottom at night, without fail - daily change of underwear;
  • mandatory two-fold (after sleep and before sleep) washing the perianal area with soap and water, and it is better to use a shower for bathing
  • in cases of massive invasion, it is recommended to carry out cleansing enemas (half a teaspoon of soda in a glass of boiled water at room temperature) at night in order to remove the female parasite from the rectum, thus preventing painful nighttime itching. Well relieves persistent itching anesthetic ointment, which is applied before bedtime on the anus;
  • to prevent the female parasite from crawling into the vagina (in women), as well as to reduce itching, it is recommended to put a small cotton swab smeared with petroleum jelly into the anus at night;
  • in order to prevent re-infection, it is recommended to carry out daily wet cleaning of the living quarters using a soap and soda solution, followed by disinfection of rags, thoroughly wipe door handles, common items, children's toys, etc.
  • The washed linen should be ironed with a hot iron.

With a weak infestation by parasites, the implementation of these measures is sufficient for self-healing.

The expediency of prescribing drug therapy is determined only by a doctor. In cases of massive invasion, the scheme has proven to be effective; drug therapy and strict compliance with the sanitary and hygienic regime.

Medicines against enterobiasis for adults

Enterobiasis in adults. If symptoms suspicious of enterobiasis are found in adults, treatment is carried out immediately after the diagnosis is confirmed by laboratory methods. All drugs, especially Vormil (Albendazole), Vermox (Mebendazole), must be prescribed by the attending physician.

Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment
Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment

Pirantel: Pyrantel is an effective medicine for pinworms. Helps to remove various types of round parasites. The drug is well tolerated by people, therefore it is prescribed in the presence of helminths in children over 6 months. Presented in the form of tablets and suspension.

The main substance of pyrantel is perintel. The drug paralyzes pinworms, as a result of which they are excreted from the intestines along with feces. The dosage of pyrantel depends on the patient's weight. After 2 weeks, the therapy should be repeated to exclude infection.

Side effects that may occur during therapy with this medication can manifest themselves as nausea, dizziness, and insomnia. Clouding of consciousness is extremely rare.

Vermox: Vermox is an antihelminthic medication that treats enterobiasis. Differs in a wide spectrum of action. It is considered an effective remedy for pinworms in adults and children. It is prescribed for children from 12 months. The active ingredient of the drug is mebendazole. Disrupts the metabolism of worms, which leads to their death.

To get rid of pinworms, 1 tablet of the drug is enough. To consolidate the effect and prevent re-infection, you need to drink it again after two weeks. Side effects from this drug are rare. Sometimes there may be abdominal pain, nausea, fever, skin rash, liver problems. A negative reaction will not bother if you follow the dosage and study all contraindications in advance.

Nemozole: This broad-spectrum drug is effective for various helminths. It is prescribed for children from 2 years old. The main substance of nemosol is albendazole. To achieve a therapeutic effect, a single dose of the medication is sufficient. After 14 days, therapy should be repeated.

Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment
Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment

Vormil: considered the best medicine for pinworms and other helminths. Suitable for the treatment of enterobiasis in adults and in children after 2 years. Active against many types of helminths. The main component of "Vormil" is albendazole. The drug destroys adults, larvae and eggs. The course of treatment with "Vormil" can last 3-5 days.

Dosage per day - 1 tablet of the drug. It is highly discouraged to self-medicate with the use of "Vormil", since the drug has a considerable list of side effects. It is advisable to perform therapy under medical supervision.

Decaris: Decaris is prescribed for various types of worms, including pinworms. A single use of it will lead to paralysis of the worms, resulting in their death and exit from the intestines. The human body completely gets rid of worms within a day after taking the medicine. The drug will be more effective if taken at night. This medication rarely provokes adverse reactions. Sometimes the temperature may rise and there may be gastrointestinal disorders.

Complications of enterobiasis in adults

Enterobiasis in adults. Given the similarity of enterobiasis with another type of disease, which, in turn, are associated with certain systems in the body, patients are often sent to specific specialists of a narrow profile, in accordance with the symptoms.

Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment
Enterobiasis in adults - signs, symptoms and treatment

In this case, it is important that the selected specialist properly assesses the general condition of the patient, referring him, if necessary, to a specialist of the required profile.

Enterobiasis can provoke various types of diseases, which include the following:

  • appendicitis, painful sensations for a long time in the appendix area;
  • proctitis (inflammation of the rectal mucosa);
  • inflammatory reactions, skin diseases caused by scratching the anus (including infectious diseases);
  • inflammation of the external genital area among female representatives.

Find out more:

  • Enterobiasis: causes, symptoms, scraping analysis and treatment
  • Scraping - analysis of feces for enterobiasis: how to prepare and where it is carried out
  • Analysis of feces for enterobiasis: how to prepare and take

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