Today we will talk about how to determine the presence of parasites in the human body, what symptoms may indicate their presence and what methods of instrumental diagnosis are most effective. The symptoms of helminthiasis are sometimes very difficult to recognize, as many of the signs are similar in nature to other diseases. To protect yourself, you need to know exactly how to determine the presence of parasites. Therefore - this article is only for a sane person who cares about the health of the whole family.
Many of my friends ask if it is possible to identify helminths at home or it is better to consult a specialist. To find out which method better shows their presence, I wrote this material. The article will reveal such moments: identification of parasites in the human body - traditional and non-traditional methods.
We correctly diagnose parasites in the human body
You can understand that a person is tormented by parasites of their appearance and the work of the whole organism - the presence of helminths is clearly noticeable. The signals that the body gives cannot always be interpreted correctly for the simple reason that the symptoms are very similar to those of other common diseases.
So do not self-medicate - it will not affect the helminths. If you notice recurrent symptoms of anxiety, it is best to see a doctor.
How to find out if an adult has parasites
Worms can remain in the body for a long time without showing obvious signs, having entered the human body with one touch of the animal when eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.
It is important to know how to know if a person has worms, as the effects of prolonged worm activity in the body can lead to serious health problems for humans.
As soon as the worms start their activity in the body, it is very difficult to "calculate" them, therefore there are no symptoms in the initial stages of the infection. The obvious symptoms of worms in the body begin to appear when the parasites begin to multiply, lead an active life, literally feeding on the human body and depleting it.
Signs of parasites in adults will be as follows:
- diarrhea of prolonged or episodic nature (this symptom may be caused by the fact that some types of parasites secrete an enzyme that provokes intestinal disorders, as well as by the fact that the parasites cause disorders of the digestive tract);
- bloating, gas, abdominal discomfort;
- constipation and bile stasis - worms that are large in size can block the bile ducts, which in turn causes constipation (the same happens if the parasites multiply and remain in the body of colonies);
- allergy, which occurs due to the fact that worms weaken the immune system, as well as due to the fact that the activity of worms poisons the body, and allergy is the inability of the body to cope with these poisons and attack;
- cider with irritable bowel syndrome - occurs because the worms constantly irritate the intestinal wall, which inflames them;
- muscle and joint pain - some types of worms can live in the joint fluid and injure the muscles and joints, causing the same discomfort as osteoarthritis;
- presence of dermatitis, urticaria, eczema and other skin rashes;
- acne, pimples, hair loss, yellowing under the eyes - all this speaks of worms, as they take away nutrients from the body needed to maintain a normal appearance;
- anemia - a symptom occurs due to the fact that the parasites stick to the walls of the intestine and suck blood from the vessels;
- abrupt weight loss on the background of gastrointestinal disorders and increased appetite.
It is possible to understand that a person has worms if at least 5 of the above symptoms occur.
By itself, grinding teeth in a dream has nothing to do with worms! This is a symptom of a malfunction in the nervous system. Finding these symptoms in yourself is the first stage. Follow-up is aimed at confirming the diagnosis and determining which parasites have attacked the body.
How to find out if a child has worms
Children are most susceptible to worm infections, which can be caused by their close contact with the outside world, as well as by the use of common utensils and bathrooms in kindergartens and schools.Because parents cannot keep track of what their child is touching, it is important for them to know the symptoms of parasites in children, which are much more pronounced than in adults.
In preschool and school-age children, the signs of parasites are as follows:
- Acute or abdominal pain;
- Swelling of the abdomen;
- diarrhea, constipation or vomiting;
- Expressed apathy, lethargy.
There are a number of additional symptoms by which one can tell that pinworms, roundworms and giardia have settled in a child's body:
- itching at night in the anal area;
- restless sleep;
- weakened immunity and frequent colds against this background.
In addition to warning parents about these symptoms, they can also do home tests for parasites in children.
There are two ways to do this:
- In the morning you should apply tape to the child's anus, then examine this piece of tape under a magnifying glass. If there are parasites, then their eggs will be visible on the bar.
- Baby feces can be seen as roundworms sometimes come out with feces.
- Sometimes children get sick, then sputum can be found in the vomit, which comes out this way when there are many of them in the stomach.
It is very difficult to identify the presence of worms in infants and in those patients who have the disease in a latent form, because in the first case babies can not declare and tell about the symptoms, therefore parents have no reason to worry in the secondcase the symptoms are simply absent.
Despite the fact that there are some home methods for determining the presence of parasites in the body, only laboratory tests can establish this fact with certainty.
That is why it is important to be able to recognize the signs of parasites in the body and to contact medical institutions in time for diagnosis. Only careful treatment of your body will help avoid complications from mumps, as well as their appearance in general.
How to determine the presence of parasites in the human body - diagnostic methods
According to the World Health Organization, every fourth inhabitant of the planet has signs of parasite infection, even more people are potential carriers of helminths.
The presence of "illegal immigrants" does not pass without leaving a trace on the body - they poison it with the products of their vital activity, restore the immune system, cause inflammatory changes in the digestive system and damage to other organs.
Helminthiasis can be disguised as various diseases, which complicates the timely diagnosis of parasites in the patient's body and leads to a delay in the pathological process.
Routine tests are not always reliable, some types of helminths can only be detected by an expensive examination. Therefore, the question of how to identify parasites in the human body is very relevant for most of the world's population.
The suspicion of the presence of a parasitic creature (or creatures) in the human body may not arise immediately. For a long time, "illegal immigrants" did not show up in any way, especially in adults with good immunity.
However, the presence of parasites in the body may be suspected if a combination of any of the following occurs:
- Persistent and persistent allergies - persistent skin rashes, itching, recurrent urticaria, dermatitis that does not respond to conventional therapy. Allergic skin reactions are particularly common in echinococcosis, toxocariasis and ascariasis.
Patients are often diagnosed with bronchial asthma.
- Weakening of immunity - increasing susceptibility to viruses, pathogenic fungi and bacteria to the development of such serious diseases as oncology, HIV.
- Weight loss with increased or suppressed appetite.
- Itching in the anus in the evening and at night - in combination with the detection of live seizures of small worms in the stool, this is one hundred percent a sign of infection with pinworms and does not require further examination.
- Asthenia - weakness, increased fatigue, decreased ability to work, headache, sleep disturbance. These symptoms are associated with constant poisoning of the nervous system with parasitic toxins.
- Dyspepsia - nausea in the morning, bloating, unstable stools from diarrhea to constipation, increased salivation.
These signs are not specific for determining the presence of parasites, they may be present in various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Other symptoms - papillomas on the skin, cracked heels, "geographical language", anemia in blood tests, frequent difficult to treat cough, swelling of the legs, muscle and joint pain, etc.
Traditional analyzes
Diagnosis of parasites living in the human intestine is most often performed by an old proven, yet affordable and reliable method for detecting their eggs in the feces under a microscope. To do this, you need to collect fresh feces in a glass container after independent stools, it is better to do this in the morning.
As a last resort, it is allowed to store the collected material for no more than 10 hours in the refrigerator. It happens that you need to donate worm feces at least 3 times for 2 or 3 weeks, which is related to the peculiarities of the life cycle of parasites.
This test detects or does not detect worms that live in the human body.
This method is effective for such types of helminths as:
- Strongyloids (hookworms), roundworms, whips;
- Pork and bull tapeworms, broad tapeworms;
- Liver (feline) methyl, schistosomes.
We often diagnose enterobiosis ourselves through nocturnal itching and sputum in the stool, especially in children. There are ways to take a scrape from the perianal area - at home with the help of adhesive tape or in a clinic, where the fence is made by a medical professional using a special spatula.
The reliability of this analysis is high if done in the morning before stool and hygiene procedures. Sometimes a number of re-studies are required at intervals of several days.
Not everyone likes to donate feces several times, so the question arises how to detect parasites in the human body with the help of blood tests. Modern science offers three main methods:
- PCR (polymerase chain reaction) - detection of DNA worms in human blood;
- serological diagnosis (ELISA) - detection of antibodies against parasites;
- genetic testing - examination of the genome of the pathogen.
Blood tests are performed in specialized laboratories and are used to diagnose diseases such as:
- echinococcosis;
- Opisthorchiasis;
- Giardiasis; Cystericircosis;
- fascioliasis;
- Amoebic dysentery;
- toxocariasis;
- Trichinosis.
In addition, the phase of the disease and the duration of the infection can be determined by a blood test.
Non-standard diagnostics
Unwanted tenants can live in the host's body for decades. The symptoms of the diseases they cause often appear when there are many helminths. Unfortunately, sometimes the detection of parasites in the human body occurs.
Worms cannot always be detected quickly by conventional means, even repeated fecal tests can give no more than 20% positive results.
Serological methods for diagnosing parasites in patients' bodies are more accurate and effective methods, especially when performed in the later stages of the disease.
One of the most modern methods is vegetative-resonance examination or bioresonance diagnostics, the essence of which is the registration of electromagnetic waves emitted by parasites with a frequency characteristic of their specific type.
Computer diagnostics is based on the use of special programs that allow comparative analysis of healthy and diseased organs in a patient.
Practitioners do not always welcome this type of examination of patients, preferring traditional tests. Nevertheless, everyone has the right to decide for themselves how to identify parasites in the human body, the most important thing is to do it in a timely and reliable manner.
Diagnostic difficulties: how to find out if a person has worms
About 1. 2 billion people are infected with helminths each year. Besides, the majority doesn't even know about it. Poor health, weakness, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, we would rather blame stress and poor nutrition.
But these and other symptoms can signal an "invasion of strangers. "How to find them and how to treat them? Helminthiasis is an insidious disease and can be masked by symptoms characteristic of a wide variety of diseases.
For example, if parasites have settled in the lungs, a person will be bothered by bouts of dry cough, which occurs for no reason and does not disappear even after prolonged treatment.
If the worms have settled in the intestines, the symptoms may manifest as abdominal discomfort, a tendency to constipation or diarrhea, intolerance to fatty foods, nausea and edema. Such complaints are not uncommon. You can treat for years, for example, gastritis or dysbiosis, without realizing that the cause of the disease are helminths parasitizing in the human body.
What tests will help identify parasites
If you suspect the presence of uninvited guests in yourself or your child, be sure to contact a doctor and have an examination. Diagnosing helminthiasis is not an easy task, as it is quite problematic to detect parasites.
The most common method is to examine the feces for worm eggs. But unfortunately it is ineffective, as worms have several stages of development and do not always lay eggs. To identify parasites, you should do a stool test 3-4 times, until there is no guarantee that the analysis will show the real picture.
The method of immunological blood test is considered to be more accurate.
This analysis allows you to determine the presence of antibodies against helminths in the body, helps to determine the type of parasites, their number, to track the dynamics of the process. It is recommended to have a regular blood test for worms, especially if the family has small children and pets.
Recently, the presence of parasites was determined only by duodenal probing and stool analysis using microscopic examinations aimed at detecting isolated helminths or their fragments, eggs and larvae.
Eggs and larvae of helminths have been found in the bile and duodenum, which parasitize the liver, bile ducts, pancreas and duodenum. Fecal samples for intestinal forms of helminthiasis were examined. If you suspect sputum is examined for paragonimiasis, urine for urogenital schistosomiasis.
But the reliability of these tests depends on the professionalism of the staff - whether the laboratory assistant will notice parasites during a microscopic examination.
In addition, if the parasite has not laid eggs at the time of the inspection, its presence will go unnoticed even by a highly qualified laboratory technician. Often only from 8-10 attempts you can get a positive result.
Today there are immunological studies that allow to determine in the blood of an infected person the presence of antigens and antibodies against parasites of various species. The reliability of such analyzes depends on the life cycle of the parasites and their quantity in the body:
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used to detect antibodies (immunoglobulins) and antigens (parasites themselves, their metabolic products). Immunoglobulins (substances of a protein nature) are produced in the body and are antibodies to antigens. This method has a high sensitivity and specificity, which is 90%.The main advantage of this method is the ability to determine the type of parasites, their number and the ability to track the dynamics of the process, which is indicated by the level of antibodies.
But this method does not reveal the severity of the invasion - the number of parasites in the body.
What you need to know about egg worm tests
In order not to repeat the tests, it is important to consider several nuances when donating feces to an egg worm:
- It is necessary to take material for analysis, ie stool, approximately 2-3 hours after a meal.
- Bowel movements should take place no later than 24 hours before the test.
- The most accurate results can be obtained if the analysis is performed 30 minutes after emptying.
- Store the test material in a cool place in a closed plastic or glass container.
- The material should be taken from the side, in the middle and from the beginning and end of the stool.
In addition, they may prescribe a smear test for enterobiosis.
It is done as follows: the nurse holds a special stick in the area between the buttocks - where the anus is. It is this analysis that helps to determine the presence of pinworms in the body.
What symptoms indicate a parasite attack
Most often one wonders how to determine if there are parasites in the body, when the health condition can already be seriously undermined. The problem of parasitism is underestimated in society and is not so much emphasized in preventive medicine as one would like.
People tend to rule out signs of damage to the body by uninvited guests, as long as the vital activity of the parasites does not affect normal health. To recognize the parasitic enemy in time and successfully get rid of it, you need to know the basic signs of its presence in the body.
Unwanted guests
Parasites are a variety of life forms that survive in the host's body. Human parasites can live on the surface of the skin, infect mucous membranes, internal organs and cells, feed on tissues, blood.
They rob the owner, consuming nutrients from food, while constantly poisoning the human body with the products of their vital activity.
Types of parasites by habitats in the human body:
- Endoparasites are lower animals and plant organisms that live in the host. These are helminths (worms), giardia, toxoplasma, echinococci, parasitic protozoa and other organisms. This category also includes viruses, fungi and bacteria.
- Ectoparasites are parasites that live on the surface of the body, in the environment, feeding on blood and human tissue cells. The most common are lice, bedbugs, ticks, fleas, catfish, as well as biplanes (mosquitoes, gadflies, flies).
It is quite easy to determine the defeat of the human body by ectoparasites, as their activity is often characterized by pronounced symptoms:
- Itching;
- Rash;
- Burning;
- redness;
- Bite pain;
- Presence of visible bite or penetrating wound.
Diagnostic analysis is performed using visual identification or microscopy (magnification under a microscope).
It is much more difficult to detect ectoparasites, because in the process of evolution the internal "parasites" have learned to feel great and perform destructive work in the body of the host, they are practically not shown.
Protozoa and helminths (worms) - the most ancient companions of man, insidious and dangerous neighbors, can boast especially of this skill. There is evidence that it can take from a few months to ten years from the time of infection to the onset of symptoms indicating the presence of intruders.
External manifestations
Most parasites have a long life cycle and multiply quite actively in the host's body, causing diseases characterized by a recurrent and chronic course.External manifestations of parasite infestation include:
- Different types of allergic reactions expressed:
- rash;
- itching;
- hives;
- Quincke's edema;
- fever
The degree of allergy depends on the location of the parasite in the body, its contact with tissues and organs, as well as the amount of toxins released.
- Disorders of the digestive tract (vomiting, nausea, belching, indigestion, salivation).
- Skin lesions (eczema, ulcers, dermatitis, papillomas, acne, acne).
- Pale skin and mucous membranes.
- Cosmetic problems (brittle nails, trimmed hair ends, seborrhea, excessive dry skin, hair loss, early wrinkles).
- Weight jumps. There is weight loss due to lack of nutrients and decreased appetite, as well as obesity due to general weight loss and metabolic disorders, thirst for sweets.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome, manifested by general fatigue, drowsiness, insomnia, weakness, decreased concentration and impaired memory.
- Constant headache caused by intoxication of the body.
- Bruxism (gnashing of teeth during sleep).This symptom is most pronounced in children.
- Swelling of the limbs.
- Periodic cough without other symptoms.
- Muscle and joint pain of unclear etiology.
- Nervous disorders. Often parasites cause depression, agitation, anxiety, irritability.
It is equally important to know about the obvious signs of helminths in the body:
- Intestinal disorders (constipation, diarrhea, bloating, flatulence, cramps, irritable bowel syndrome, fatty stools, faecal discoloration). Worms in the human body can reach significant sizes, so they physically block the movement of feces, disrupt the work of other organs (bile ducts, etc. ).
- Itching in the perineum and anus.
- Visual detection of helminths in the folds of the anus.
- Presence of helminth infestation in vomiting.