Liver Fluke: How A Person Can Get Infected

2023 Author: Riley Dean | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 12:07

Hepatic fluke, or hepatic fluke, belongs to the class of trematodes and causes fascioliasis. Once in the body, this parasite infects the liver and causes serious illness. Knowing how a person can become infected with hepatic fluke can avoid accidental infection.

Content

• 1 Features of the development of helminth
• 2 Routes of entry into the body
• 3 Manifestation of the disease
• 4 Treatment of the disease

Features of the development of helminth

The hepatic fluke has an oblong, flat, white-gray body up to 50 mm long. With the help of suction cups, it is attached to the surface of internal organs. A sexually mature individual can lay up to 30-40 thousand eggs per day.

1. Eggs laid by an adult (marita), along with the feces of an infected animal, enter the environment. Water is considered a favorable environment for further development.
2. A month later, miracidium appears from the egg, which, with the help of cilia on the body, can move freely in the water. For further development to take place, another host is needed - it is a mollusk.
3. Once in the body of a snail or crustacean, miracidium sheds cilia and enters the sporocyst stage. Redia ripens inside the sporocysts. Redia live in the mollusk liver, destroying it. After a while, cercariae are formed in the redia.
4. The cercarium comes out and moves in the reservoir with the help of a small tail. When settling on an aquatic plant, it begins to be covered with a protective shell. Adolescaria develops.
5. After the larva enters the human oral cavity, it enters the digestive organs. The protective shell of adolescaria dissolves. They begin to move towards the gallbladder and its ducts. Within two months, their final ripening to an adult (marita) occurs here.

Routes of entry into the body

How can a human be infected with a liver fluke? There are several ways in which you can become infected with a liver fluke.

1. You can get infected by eating unwashed vegetables, fruits, berries and herbs, bought in a store or picked directly from the garden.
2. Drinking raw, unfiltered water. The risk of infection increases if you drink water from a well, street pump.
3. Livestock should be regularly shown to the veterinarian, preventive deworming should be carried out.
4. It is necessary to combat shellfish in water bodies. This will prevent the larvae from getting on plants and fruits during watering.

1. While swimming in open reservoirs, where cattle graze nearby, liver fluke infection can occur if water is accidentally swallowed.
2. There is a small risk if you eat poorly thermally processed animal liver.
3. There is a risk of developing fascioliasis when eating poorly cooked or fried fish.
4. Another way of getting adolescaria into the body is by interacting with contaminated soil or sand.
5. Lack of hygiene when camping.

The disease begins to develop only if a larva has entered the human body in the developmental stage of adolescaria. When eating shellfish, liver fluke infection cannot occur.

It is imperative to observe hygiene. All products should be thoroughly washed and rinsed with boiling water before use. Boil or fry meat and fish well. Do not give raw fish to pets. The water should be boiled or filtered. Sites and reservoirs must be disinfected.

The manifestation of the disease

After the parasites enter the body, a different period of time may pass before the first symptoms appear. The incubation period lasts from one week to two months. After this, the acute stage of the disease begins:

• the temperature suddenly rises;
• pain in the upper right part of the abdomen joins;
• worried about nausea, especially in the morning;
• there may be vomiting;
• the liver and other digestive organs are enlarged.

The chronic course of the disease is characterized by the following symptoms.

1. Constant pain in the abdomen of varying intensity. The work of the entire digestive system is disrupted.
2. Often worried about loose stools, hemoglobin in the blood decreases.
3. Signs of anemia join.
4. The patient feels weak, drowsy, apathetic.
5. A bacterial infection often joins, which worsens the condition.

The diagnosis is confirmed by studying the biomaterial in the laboratory. Helminth eggs can be found in feces.

An immunological blood test may show antibodies. In the general analysis of blood, hemoglobin decreases, eosinophils and leukocytes increase. Ultrasound of the abdominal cavity shows pathological foci.

Treatment of the disease

Treatment of the disease in the acute stage begins with the removal of the intoxication of the body. Prescribe hepatoprotectors, antihistamines and enzyme preparations, choleretic agents, enterosorbents. If a bacterial infection has joined, there is a need to prescribe antibiotics.

You should definitely switch to a special diet. The diet should not contain spicy, fatty, salty and sweet foods. Alcohol, carbonated drinks are excluded, the consumption of dairy products is limited.

After stabilization of the condition, you can start anthelmintic therapy. Effective medications for liver flukes are:

• Triclabendazole;
• Bithionol;
• Praziquantel;
• Chloxyl.

Once the fluke is removed from the body, restorative therapy is needed. Probiotics are prescribed that can restore intestinal microflora and peristalsis. Immunomodulators increase immunity. Vitamins and minerals replenish nutrients lost during illness.