How And Why Do Worm Eggs Enter The Environment

How and why do worm eggs enter the environment

Content

• 1 Why do the eggs of worms leave the host's body
• 2 Human Ascaris: 240 thousand eggs per day
• 3 Pinworm: independent egg laying in the environment
• 4 Distribution of helminth eggs in the environment
• 5 Measures to prevent infection with helminths

Worms, they are also helminths, are worm-like animals that parasitize inside the body. They are not transmitted by shaking hands, kissing, or coughing.

As a rule, they enter the human body in the form of an egg, which is found in the environment. But how do they end up in it? Let's see how the eggs of worms enter the environment, and from it into the human body. Knowing this, we will save ourselves from very unpleasant "guests" in our internal organs.

Helminths in the environment

Why do the eggs of worms leave the host's body

Most often, representatives of roundworms - nematodes parasitize in the human body. They inhabit the small and large intestines, where they feed on digested food (roundworms) or the blood of the walls of the digestive system (whipworms).

The host organism provides helminths with comfortable conditions:

• even temperature;
• high humidity;
• abundance of food.

However, as a habitat, it is very limited and can feed a very modest population of parasites. In addition, with an excessive number of them, the host may die from intoxication, anemia, intestinal obstruction and even peritonitis. Following the owner, the worm also dies, since it does not have the ability to move to another organism.

Whipworm eggs

In the course of evolution, helminths have solved this problem - they have adapted to such reproduction in which the eggs of the worms enter the environment. In it, they remain for a very long time - up to 3 years, withstanding high temperatures in summer and freezing in winter. Most of them die without waiting for the change of the owner, the smaller part - with food or water infects a new person. In some worms, for example hookworms, a larva emerges from the egg in the external environment and independently enters the human body through the skin.

Human Ascaris: 240 thousand eggs per day

In order to ensure the reproduction of the population, helminths form a fantastic number of eggs - tens and hundreds of thousands per day. Like the worm itself, the egg is covered with a shell that is resistant to the action of the host's digestive juices. When the eggs of the worms enter the environment, the same shell will protect them from contrasting temperatures, drying and ultraviolet radiation.

Ascaris eggs

Pinworm: self-laying eggs in the environment

Pinworm is one of those helminths that are not fixed in the human intestine, but freely migrate along it. After mating, the females of this parasite crawl out of the anus and lay eggs in the folds of the skin surrounding the anus.

Pinworm eggs under the microscope

The rationale behind this behavior is that it causes rapid re-infection of the same host. The movements of the female in the perineum cause severe itching, which the man tries to relieve by scratching with his fingers. The eggs end up under the nails and return to the digestive system without proper hygiene. This happens especially often in children, as well as in adults who bite their nails.

The spread of helminth eggs in the environment

Distribution of helminths in the environment

The eggs of the worms enter the environment with feces, and spread in it in different ways. They can settle on the soil and on the fur of animals, fly with dry dust, float in water in the form of a suspension. If insects land on feces, the eggs can stick to their legs.

Knowing how the eggs of the worms get into the environment, special services thoroughly disinfect the sewage with ozone, chlorine and de-invasive drugs.

However, waste products are not always handled properly. There are sewage breaks, flooding of village boardwalk toilets, massive multi-day outdoor events. In such situations, helminth eggs remain in a viable state for a long time, waiting for new hosts mainly in water.

A particular danger is posed by infected urban animals emptying the intestines in playgrounds, in sandpits, on beaches. Dog feces should be immediately removed by the owner of the animal, since through them the eggs of the worms enter the environment with which the children come into contact.

Measures to prevent infection with helminths

The ways in which the offspring of parasitic worms enter the environment determine the measures for the prevention of helminthiasis. Hygiene comes first: washing hands thoroughly after visiting the restroom and public places, installing a septic tank in the country, fighting flies and cockroaches.

• Food eaten without heat treatment should be washed in clean running water. Products that have come into contact with insects, such as bread used by flies, should not be used. Raw water from open sources and even wells is prohibited.
• Pets need to be treated twice a year for worms with special drugs prescribed by a veterinarian. In close contact with cats and dogs, their owners need to periodically take tests for worm eggs and, on the recommendation of a doctor, take anthelmintic drugs.