How Opisthorchiasis Is Transmitted: The Main Routes Of Infection

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How Opisthorchiasis Is Transmitted: The Main Routes Of Infection
How Opisthorchiasis Is Transmitted: The Main Routes Of Infection

Video: How Opisthorchiasis Is Transmitted: The Main Routes Of Infection

Video: How Opisthorchiasis Is Transmitted: The Main Routes Of Infection
Video: Routes of Viral Transmission 2024, March
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The disease of opisthorchiasis is caused by a parasite such as cat fluke. The hepatic ducts, pancreas, and gallbladder are affected. With the help of suckers, which are located on the abdominal and head part, the parasites are attached to the mucous surface of these organs. How is opisthorchiasis transmitted? The causative agent enters the human body along with infected fish of a certain type.

Content

  • 1 Transmission routes
  • 2 Manifestation of the disease
  • 3 Diagnosis and treatment
  • 4 Preventive measures

Transmission routes

Opisthorchiasis is transmitted from person to person only if, in some random way, the patient's feces enter a healthy body.

Together with the feces of an infected person or animal, the larvae enter open water bodies, then are swallowed together with the sludge by snails. They are intermediate hosts. In their body, within two months, further development of larvae to cercaria occurs. It is a kind of larva with a tail.

Ripe cercariae comes out to get through the skin into the body of the fish. Only carp fish are infected: bream, tench, asp, roach, minnow. A new stage in the development of the larva begins. Inside the fish, the cercariae is covered with a protective shell and turns into a metacercarium. It is in this state that the larva enters the oral cavity of a person or animal.

If you eat poorly thermally processed or poorly salted fish, then the larvae penetrate first into the stomach, and only then into the small intestine. Here, under the influence of the digestive juice, the protective shell of the egg breaks, and the larva enters the liver. It is in this organ that further maturation and reproduction of an adult occurs.

Each adult helminth can lay up to 2000 eggs per day. Some of the eggs are excreted together with bile and enters the feces. Together with the feces, it again enters the environment and the cycle repeats.

The following routes of infection can be distinguished: with high, medium risk, or completely excluding infection.

  • Can you get infected when communicating with a sick person? It is impossible to get infected by a contact-household method (through a towel, dishes). The disease cannot be transmitted sexually.
  • You can not get infected with opisthorchiasis from a sick animal or its feces. But eggs from the fur of a cat or dog can remain under the nails and get into the mouth. Most often, in this case, the larva does not receive further development. This requires stages associated with intermediate hosts, that is, with snails and fish.
  • Water contaminated by larvae also poses no danger to humans, since in the early stages of development, the larva is not able to survive.
  • The feces together with the larvae can fall into the ground, after which the larvae end up on vegetables and fruits. If you do not wash them thoroughly, invasion can occur.
  • It is possible to get infected by swimming in open water and swallowing water.
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Thus, we can conclude that people can become infected only if they eat sick fish. Freshwater inhabitants of reservoirs, humans or animals cannot become a source of infection. They only participate in the spread of the disease.

The manifestation of the disease

The disease can be acute (about 2-3 months) and chronic (over many decades) form.

The infectious process in the acute stage is manifested by the following symptoms:

  • pains appear in the right upper abdomen;
  • pain in muscles and joints;
  • the liver and pancreas are enlarged;
  • worried about nausea, may be vomiting, heartburn;
  • stool is disturbed;
  • there is bloating, increased gas formation;
  • sleep and appetite are disturbed;
  • there is a rash on the body and itching.

Human opisthorchiasis, proceeding in a chronic form, resembles hepatitis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis in all respects. Symptoms:

  • Paroxysmal pain under the ribs on the left and right.
  • Girdle pain in the chest.
  • The outflow of bile is disturbed, its stagnation occurs.
  • Rapid fatigue, depression, apathy are present.
  • The skin is pale.
  • A white-yellow coating with cracks appears on the tongue.
  • The area around the eyes swells and becomes blue.

If the disease is not treated, complications develop: cirrhosis of the liver, acute form of pancreatitis, cholecystitis, abscesses, peritonitis, cancers.

Diagnostics and treatment

It all starts with examination and collection of anamnesis. Then the specialist directs the patient for further laboratory examination to clarify the diagnosis.

  • A complete blood count may show an elevated level of eosinophils.
  • A biochemical blood test shows changes in liver enzymes.
  • Helminth eggs can be found in feces. Stool analysis will need to be passed repeatedly.
  • An enzyme immunoassay of venous blood will help determine the presence of antibodies.
  • An abdominal ultrasound will show pathological changes in the work and size of the digestive system.
  • Duodenal intubation and bile testing may be required.

Treatment of opisthorchiasis includes three stages:

The preparatory stage requires admission:

  • hepatoprotectors (Essentiale, Ursosan, Rezalut);
  • anti-inflammatory drugs;
  • choleretic agents (Hofitol, Allohol);
  • adsorbents (Smecta, Enterosgel);
  • antihistamines (Tavegil, Suprastin, Loratadin).

The second stage is the main one and is associated with the intake of anthelmintic drugs. The most effective medicine for worms of the trematode group is Praziquantel (Biltricid, Azinox), Mebendazole or Albendazole

The third stage may also require the intake of choleretic drugs, immunomodulators, vitamins, as well as drugs that restore the intestinal microflora

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Preventive measures

In order not to get sick with opisthorchiasis, you need to follow some recommendations:

  • do not eat raw fish;
  • boil or fry fish for at least 30 minutes;
  • salting at home should last at least 2 weeks;
  • you need to salt the fish correctly: for 1 kg of fish, take 300 g of salt;
  • to destroy parasites, you can hold the fish in the freezer for about three days (the temperature should be -26-28 ° C);
  • vegetables and herbs must be thoroughly washed before use, it is advisable to pour over boiling water;
  • being in nature, observe hand hygiene;
  • do not swim in unknown open bodies of water.

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