Pork tapeworm type of worms. Pork tapeworm

The relevance of taeniasis in the Russian Federation remains at the present time, despite the rather low all-Russian incidence rate. This is due to the presence of individual regions where cases of invasion continue to be recorded without a downward trend (the Republic of Tyva, Kalmykia, Krasnoyarsk region, Ural federal district).

Of particular importance is the prevention of infection with tapeworm and complications of helminthiasis, often leading to disability and disability.

Pork tapeworm(lat. Taenia solium, armed tapeworm) is a helminth, the causative agent and the cause of such human diseases as teniasis and cysticercosis. Refers to (Cestoda).

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1. The structure of the pork tapeworm

Pork tapeworm (pork tapeworm) has a white tape-shaped body about 3 meters long (in rare cases it can reach 6 meters).



Figure 1 - Schematic structure of the pork tapeworm

On the head (scolex) with a diameter of up to 3 mm there are four suction cups, as well as a corolla of special hooks, the number of which is 22-32, for which he was called armed. All these devices help the helminth stick to the wall of the small intestine of the final host.



Figure 2 - Scolex of pork tapeworm

Each mature segment is usually 11 to 15 mm long and 6 to 7 mm wide. The short neck of the tapeworm performs a "body-forming" function (by budding).

Pork tapeworm is a hermaphrodite, that is, in one individual there are both male and female genital organs. During the growth of the worm, the male reproductive organs are first formed, and then the female. There are no genitals in the front of the body. Sexually mature hermaphroditic proglottids appear only in the middle of the body.

All helminths of the class of tapeworms lack digestive, circulatory and respiratory system. The shell of the worm is tegument, roughly speaking, the "skin" of the helminth. The tegument has not only a shaping and barrier function, but also a digestive one.

The nutrition of the worm occurs over the entire surface of the body by pinocytosis (the absorption of useful elements using special holes located on the tegument). The tegument also secretes a special enzyme on the surface of the body, which protects the helminth from digestion in the host's intestines.

The muscular membrane of the pork tapeworm is represented by two layers - the outer (annular) and the inner (longitudinal). The excretory system consists of several longitudinal trunks, interconnected by bridges at the end of each segment. In the final segment, the excretory system is represented by one common opening. The nervous system consists of 6 to 12 strands that run along the body and are connected to each other by commissures.

2. Life cycle

In the cycle of development of the armed tapeworm, two stages can be distinguished: sexually mature (in the body of the final host) and larval (in the body of the intermediate host). The larval stage also goes through several transformations:

1. 1 The first larval stage, or oncosphere, is formed in the egg when it is still in the segment. It is a small ball with a diameter of 10 micrometers, having three pairs of hooks. The oncosphere is covered with a shell, on the surface of which there are sometimes cilia.
2. 2 The second stage is Finn. The larva transforms into a Finn in the intestines of the intermediate host. The Finn of the armed helminth is represented by a cysticercus with a diameter of 7-10 mm. It is a white, pea-sized vesicle filled with fluid and containing a screwed-in head with hooks for attachment.

Humans are the definitive host of the tapeworm.. The source of infection is a sick person, with the feces of which mature tapeworm segments containing eggs come out. The shell of the segments is destroyed in the environment, and their contents fall into the grass and soil.

Intermediate hosts are domestic pigs, which can ingest the eggs of the worm by eating contaminated feed or the faeces of a sick person.



Figure 3 - Morphology of porcine tapeworm eggs

less often intermediate hosts there may be wild pigs, carnivores. In the stomach of pigs, a six-hooked oncosphere emerges from the eggs, which perforates the wall of the organ and penetrates into the bloodstream. Through the blood vessels, the oncosphere enters various organs, primarily the muscles of the animal.

In them, after a couple of months, the larva takes the form of a Finn of the cysticercus type.. Cysticerci remain in the body of pigs for up to two years, then they die, become covered with calcium compounds and harden (calcification occurs).



Figure 4 - Life cycle of porcine tapeworm (taeniasis and cysticercosis), CDC source



Figure 5 - Geographical prevalence of taeniasis (WHO source)

3. Clinical picture of teniasis

The initial symptoms of invasion begin to appear in humans only in the chronic phase, when the tapeworm grows into a sexually mature individual. Patients complain of weakness, irritability, and appetite disorders. At the beginning of the disease, the appetite increases very much up to bulimia (craving to overeat), while the patient’s weight does not increase, but even decreases, over time, the appetite decreases, and the person’s weight returns to normal and does not change significantly in the future.

Patients experience pain in different parts of the abdomen. Especially often in the right iliac region, when the proglottids pass through the ileocecal valve rich in receptors (Bauhin's valve), which separates the small and large intestines.

Patients are concerned about nausea, vomiting, rumbling in the abdomen, flatulence (painful bloating), periodic increase in stool. Many patients complain of the presence of helminth segments in the feces. Some patients develop glossitis (inflammation of the tongue).

In immunocompromised individuals, neurological disorders, headache, dizziness, fainting, sleep disturbances, and sometimes seizures may join. For more late stages during the life of the worm, an infected person develops allergic skin lesions in the form of urticaria.

A severe and formidable complication of teniasis is cysticercosis, when the finnose stage of the helminth develops in the human body, turning the patient into an intermediate host. A person suffering from a pork tapeworm is always at risk of developing cysticercosis!

4. Cysticercosis

There are two ways in which cysticercosis occurs in humans:

1. 1 complication of teniasis;
2. 2 independent disease.

As a complication of teniasis, cysticercosis can develop when mature segments with tens of thousands of eggs enter the patient's stomach with nausea and vomiting in the order of self-infection (the so-called autoinvasion). Subsequently, oncospheres enter the duodenum, pierce its wall, enter the bloodstream, spread throughout the body and settle in the skeletal muscles, heart, organs of vision, brain and spinal cord, skin and lungs. Invasion can be either single or multiple.

As an independent disease, cysticercosis occurs in humans when they accidentally swallow the eggs of an armed tapeworm when eating dirty vegetables that grow when the soil is fertilized with poorly neutralized sewage, as well as when personal hygiene is not followed. In rare cases, infection with oncospheres healthy person occurs through the mouth of a patient with teniasis.

Cysticercosis of the brain is characterized by various symptoms, which depend on the localization of the process. Allocate damage to the cortex, ventricles, base of the brain and mixed lesions. Cysticerci render toxic effect and cause inflammation of the surrounding nervous tissue and membranes.



Figure 6 - Neurocysticercosis on MRI before treatment (A, B, C) and after it (D, E, F)

Damage to the cerebral cortex is manifested by a mental disorder and an increase in intracranial pressure due to an obstruction to the outflow of cerebrospinal fluid. Mental disorders are presented in the form of agitation, depressive states, hallucinations and delusions. Increased intracranial pressure causes transient headache, vomiting that does not bring relief, dizziness. Patients often develop epileptic seizures.

Among all the ventricles of the brain, cysticerci most often affect the fourth ventricle, where they can safely swim in the cerebrospinal fluid. The defeat of the ventricle is manifested by Bruns' symptom, characterized by the appearance of a sharp paroxysmal headache and vomiting.

The appearance of these symptoms is characterized by a change in the position of the head, so patients are usually in a forced position, which allows them to reduce or avoid these manifestations. There are also violations of the respiratory and heart, rarely - violations of consciousness.

Damage to the base of the brain is manifested by pain in the back of the head or neck, decreased taste, hearing, and vestibular disorders. Sometimes there are sensory and motor disorders, less often - mental disorders.

The mixed form of brain damage has a rather severe course. It is manifested by epileptic seizures of varying severity and gross mental disorders.

Cysticercosis of the spinal cord usually develops when Finn gets from the ventricles of the brain with a current of cerebrospinal fluid. The initial manifestations of the disease include pain in the limbs, girdle pain in the back and abdomen, at chest level. Over time, the symptoms worsen, paralysis, sensory disturbances, urinary and fecal incontinence appear. Sometimes there are fibrillations (uncontrolled muscle twitches).

Isolated skeletal muscle cysticercosis is usually asymptomatic. As a rule, it is discovered by chance.

When the Finn is located in the subcutaneous fat layer, the formation of spherical tumors is observed, which rise above the surface of the skin. When probing such tumors, their cavity character is felt. Tumors most often appear on inner surface shoulders, on the upper half of the chest and on the palms.

Cysticercosis of the eye can affect any structure of the organ with the occurrence of uveitis, conjunctivitis, retinitis, retinal detachment. The formation of Finns in the tissues of the eye entails a gradual deterioration of vision up to its complete loss and atrophy of the eyeball.

The defeat of the cysticerci of the heart is manifested by rhythm disturbances. It can be bradycardia (rare heartbeat) or tachycardia (rapid heartbeat). Patients usually do not present other complaints. Very rarely, heart failure occurs.

The presence of cysticerci in the lungs usually does not cause any symptoms. Rarely, patients develop an unexplained cough with clear sputum, which may persist. long time. Sometimes streaks of blood appear in the sputum. familiar at times exercise stress may cause mild shortness of breath that resolves after a short rest. However, in most cases, patients do not pay attention to this and do not seek help.

In taeniasis, the prognosis is serious due to the potential for infection with cysticercosis.. With cysticercosis of the skin and skeletal muscles, the prognosis is more favorable, however, the patient should be monitored for a long time. The prognosis for damage to other organs is doubtful, and more often unfavorable.

5. Diagnostic methods

Diagnosis of teniasis and cysticercosis is very difficult, since these diseases. Of no small importance is a detailed questioning of the patient. The place of work of a person, the nature of the food consumed, travel to countryside in the next few months, contact with sick people. Also, patients should be asked about the subject. To do this, doctors usually show on the preparations what the segments of the worm look like.

At a positive result questioning patients are asked to bring the allocated segments to the laboratory for a final diagnosis. It should be borne in mind that some individuals may hide the fact of the allocation of segments. These include children and adolescents, the elderly and food workers.

Laboratory diagnosis of teniasis includes macroovohelminthoscopy: mature tapeworm proglottids are found in the feces of an infected person. The detection of only helminth eggs does not make it possible to establish a final diagnosis, because worm eggs are no different from the causative agent of another helminthiasis - bovine tapeworm.



Figure 7 - Comparative characteristics bovine and pork tapeworm

A complete blood count reveals eosinophilia and leukocytosis, however, such changes in blood counts are usually characteristic of the initial stages of the disease.
The diagnosis of cysticercosis is also based on a survey of the patient. Questioning an infected person is important here, especially for the presence of teniasis in the past.

Of the laboratory diagnostic methods, general analysis blood when eosinophilia can be detected. Also, the diagnosis of cysticercosis is confirmed using serological research methods: the reaction of binding a compliment to an antigen from cysticerci, the reaction of indirect hemagglutination and enzyme immunoassay are considered more specific.

For the diagnosis of cysticercosis of the central nervous system, CT and MRI diagnostics are of no small importance, with the help of which oval formations with a clearly defined membrane, sometimes calcified, are detected. The cerebrospinal fluid is also examined, in which lymphocytosis and eosinophilia are found, sometimes an increase in protein, as well as single scolexes.

Cysticercosis of the skin and skeletal muscles is diagnosed by biopsy of tumor-like formations, inside which a helminth larva is found. Sometimes radiography helps to identify the calcified dead Finns.

Cysticercosis of the eye is determined by ophthalmoscopy. It is rare to find cysticercus in the fundus. As a manifestation of increased intracranial pressure in cysticercosis of the brain, congestive optic discs may appear in the fundus.

Cysticercosis of the lungs and heart can be established by x-ray of the chest. The radiograph reveals small rounded shadows with clear boundaries, often calcified. The size of the shadows varies from five to seven millimeters. As a rule, such shadows are scattered over all fields, their number varies from a few to dozens.

A positive blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid test with cysticerci antigen confirms the diagnosis of cysticercosis.

6. Drug therapy

Two drugs have been approved by the CDC for taeniasis: praziquantel (Biltricid) and niclosamide (Fenasal). Praziquantel is usually used in combination with an effective laxative, dosing regimen 5-10 mg / kg body weight once (both in adults and in children). A laxative is usually used two hours after taking the tablets to remove mature proglottids before eggs are released from them (prevention of cysticercosis). Known cases surgical removal mature worm from the small intestine.

Niclosamide (the drug is currently not registered in the Russian Federation) is a good alternative drug for the treatment of taeniasis. The treatment regimen involves a single use of 2 g of the drug for adults and 50 mg / kg of body weight for children.

The drug of choice for cysticercosis (especially neurocysticercosis) is albendazole in combination with glucocorticosteroids (glucocorticoids) under constant medical supervision.

A recent placebo-controlled, double-blind study demonstrated that treatment of neurocysticercosis with albendazole (400 mg twice daily plus 6 mg QD dexamethasone for 10 days) reduced the number of seizures over a subsequent 30-month follow-up (source CDC).

It is possible to prescribe praziquantel, but its use can provoke the development of an inflammatory process and worsening of symptoms, which is especially dangerous in cerebral cysticercosis.

The principles of treatment of cysticercosis are being developed and improved to this day. Treatment of this complication (or an independent disease) is carried out only in a hospital. Praziquantel is not prescribed for cysticercosis of the eyes and pregnant women.

The use of anthelmintic drugs for calcified cysts is ineffective.

With cysticercosis of the eyes and single cysticerci of the nervous system, apply surgery, in postoperative period which is prescribed praziquantel and glucocorticosteroids.

The effectiveness of deworming is established by control studies of feces one to two to three months after the course of treatment.

7. Prevention of helminthiasis

The fight against teniasis includes a complex of biomedical measures. Personal prevention includes observing the rules of personal hygiene and refusing to eat meat that has not passed sanitary and veterinary control and unprocessed meat.

Public prevention is as follows:

1. 1 Observation of livestock slaughter in slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants.
2. 2 Inspection of carcasses and culling.
3. 3 Combating backyard slaughter and sale of meat that has not been subjected to veterinary examination.

Infected meat is exposed technical disposal and processing it into products unsuitable for food (fertilizer, soap). If a small number of Finns are found in the meat, then in this case it is allowed to heat it for a long time and sell it as canned food.

Great importance is attached to sanitary and educational work, as well as measures to prevent the infection of pigs, to identify and treat infectious patients, especially those employed in animal husbandry, to improve toilets, and to protect the environment from human feces.

Scolex (head part) of porcine tapeworm under a microscope

Pork tapeworm (armed tapeworm or pork tapeworm) is a variety that most often chooses a pig or wild boar as an intermediate host. The final owner is exclusively a man, but he can also act as an intermediate.

The life span of an adult tapeworm in the body of the final owner can reach up to 25 years.

Structure

The respiratory system does not require oxygen; anaerobic. Nervous - poorly developed. The reproductive system is highly developed - the worm produces great amount eggs (up to 5 million per day). The digestive system is missing.

Life cycle

When eating pork that has not undergone the required heat treatment, a person becomes infected. After the cysticercus enters the intestine, it turns its head outward and clings to the walls of the intestine with the help of suction cups and hooks. Then, new segments grow from the end, and within about two months, adults are formed. The cycle of development is closed.

Humans can also accidentally become intermediate hosts instead of a pig when they become infected with embryonated eggs while eating contaminated foods. At the same time, the larvae (cysticerci) will spread through the bloodstream through various tissues of the body and encapsulate there - for them this is a dead end path of development, since no one will eat them to complete their life cycle. The disease is called at the same time.

Damage

Helminth enters the human body through food, unwashed hands, dishes, dirty linen. The danger is that during vomiting, the larvae may end up in the stomach. They get there from the intestines and are easily spread throughout the body.

In many cases, cysticercosis leads to brain damage, blindness, tumor-like growths, and a decrease in the level of eosinophils. This causes serious neurological problems such as hydrocephalus, meningitis, seizures, which often leads to death.

The main preventive measure is a good heat treatment of pork. Meat can be frozen at -10°C for up to 5 days. Dirty hands are also the cause of human infection with cysticercosis. Therefore, personal hygiene is considered an effective preventive measure.

Type: flatworms

Family: tiniids

Type: pork tapeworm. Taeniasolium.

Medical Significance: taeniasis, anthropozoonotic disease.

Infection: a person becomes infected by eating Finnose pork meat that has not undergone sufficient heat treatment.

The pork, or armed, tapeworm is outwardly similar to the bull tapeworm, but its length is not more than 3 meters, on the head with a diameter of 0.6-2 mm, in addition to 4 suckers, there are hooks in the amount of 22-32.

Mature segments contain about 50,000 eggs, they are shorter than those of the bull tapeworm, and the uterus has only 8-12 lateral branches. The segments do not have active mobility.

The oncospheres of porcine and bovine tapeworms are practically indistinguishable.

Hosts:

Definitive host: man, artiodactyls.

Intermediate host: pig.

Life cycle.

If oncospheres enter the stomach through the mouth or from the intestines into the stomach, then Finns (cysticerci) can develop in the subcutaneous tissue, muscles, eyes, brain and parenchymal organs, causing a serious illness - cysticercosis.

Cysticerci have the form of transparent vesicles with a diameter from millet grain to 1.5 cm or more, filled with a transparent liquid, in which there is a head that has the same structure as that of an adult tapeworm. Cysticerci form within 2-4 months. In humans, cysticerci survive for several years, in pigs for up to two years, after which they die and calcify as in tbc.

The diagnosis of cysticercosis is made on the basis of clinical, radiological and laboratory data (serological research methods).

Clinical picture: see teniarichnosis (bovine tapeworm).

Diagnostics:

Prevention: see teniarichnosis (bovine tapeworm).

Table: differential diagnosis of taeniasis.

Dwarf tapeworm. Hymenolepis nana.

Type: flatworms

Class: cestodes (tapeworms)

Family: tiniids

View: dwarf tapeworm. Hymenolepis nana.

Medical Significance: hemenolepiasis, zooanthroponic disease.

Infection: a person becomes infected through dirty hands (fecal-oral) if the rules of personal hygiene are not observed (autoinvasion and autosuperinvasion). When eating a flour bug with poorly baked bread (alimentary infection).

Length 0.5-5 cm. Consists of a ribbon-like body (strobili), neck, head.

On the head: 4 suction cups and a crown of 20-30 hooks.

The strobila is very tender and easily torn, the segments dissolve in the intestine and are excreted into the external environment with feces.

Eggs are oval or rounded, transparent, colorless. The shell is thin double-circuit. Oncospheres are rounded central part eggs are transparent, colorless, have their own thin shell, as well as 3 pairs of hooks. Between the shell of the egg and the oncosphere there are long transparent threads - filaments, 6 at each end.

Hosts:

Intermediate host: flour bug - beetle of the genus Tenebrio.

Life cycle.

If the rules of personal hygiene are violated, eggs can get on door handles, toys ..., and are also brought through carriers to food.

Eggs → small intestine → oncospheres are released from the membranes and penetrate into the villi → turn into a cysticercoid larva → after 4-6 days the larvae destroy the villi and fall into the lumen of the c-ka → attach to the wall of the c-ka and become sexually mature in a week. Or the eggs, without leaving the intestine, turn into a cysticercoid, which is reattached to the intestinal wall.

Or when eating a flour bug of the genus Tenebro, which is an intermediate host and contains finous cysticercoids, which in the lumen of the to-ka is attached to the wall of the to-ki and turns into a mature worm.

clinical picture.

Pain in the abdomen of a different nature

Unstable chair

Nausea, loss of appetite.

Headaches, nervousness

epileptoid seizures

Decreased attention and memory.

Allergy occurs: itchy rash, urticaria, conjunctivitis, vasomotor rhinitis.

Diagnostics:

Microscopy of freshly excreted stools, as eggs are quickly deformed and destroyed

Enrichment method according to Kalantaryan.

Prevention:

Identification and treatment of patients

Personal hygiene

Deratization and pest control

Annual examination of children in schools and kindergartens

Examination of all members of the team in identifying a sick person to him.

Pork tapeworm, the Latin name of which is Taenia solium, is the source of infection dangerous diseases teniasis and cysticercosis. This is a biohelminth with a complex life cycle associated with a number of changes in its structure that occur during life. The adult looks like a long white ribbon.

Infection of the carrier with a tapeworm occurs through the consumption of animal meat infected with cysticerci.

The adult tapeworm has White color. It lives in the human small intestine and consists of about one thousand segments. All segments of the tapeworm's body have their own reproductive system and can produce up to 50 thousand eggs, giving rise to the development of larvae.

Hooked scolex of the armed tapeworm

Unlike other tapeworms, the attachment organ of the pork tapeworm has additional devices that allow it to securely attach to the walls of the small intestine. From 17 to 32 barbed hooks are located at the top of the rostellum, creating two rows of fixation devices.

The cervix forms thousands of proglottids

Immediately behind the scolex is the neck, which is about 1 cm long, producing a huge number of segments or proglottids. During their life, they increase in size, self-fertilize and produce up to 50,000 helminth eggs each.

The nutrition and digestion of the tapeworm is continuous, and the consumed nutrients are spent on the production and development of new proglottids.

The nervous system of the tapeworm consists of the head node and two nerve trunks, the location of which is symmetrical. Both run through the entire body parallel to the excretory system. The helminth has practically no sense organs, and its respiration is carried out anaerobically.

Toxic waste causes carrier poisoning

Exactly a large number of toxic substances entering the body of a person infected with a pork tapeworm leads to painful sensations and the appearance of:

• dizziness and headache;
• weakness, lethargy and apathy;
• feeling of nausea and vomiting;
• there is nervousness and irascibility;
• decreased appetite;
• constipation and diarrhea;
• acute non-systemic pain in the abdomen;
• with cysticercosis, a rash and discharge appear on the mucous membrane.

Chitinous shell protects against temperature extremes

Each egg has a dense chitinous shell, the structure of which reliably protects it from negative factors. external environment. Eggs perfectly tolerate heat and cold, maintaining their vitality even with prolonged freezing. They can for a long time be in the soil and carried by any living creatures, including earthworms, insects, birds, rodents.

Once in their digestive system, the eggs of the worm are not destroyed, but do not begin a new life cycle. To turn into a larva, it is required that the egg enters the gastrointestinal tract wild or domestic pig, a dog, a camel or a person, the acid composition of which allows you to dissolve the chitinous shell and release the larva.

The larvae have hooks for attaching to tissues.

The larvae of the tapeworm that emerged from the egg have powerful hooks from birth, with the help of which they pierce the intestinal walls of the host, penetrating into its circulatory or lymphatic system. Together with the bloodstream, the larvae spread throughout the body, entering the muscle tissue and its internal organs.

The next step is the encapsulation of the helminth itself. It is covered with a layer of durable chitin, and inside it is a fully formed scolex with suckers, hooks, and a rudimentary neck, ready to immediately start producing proglottids.

The larva in the form of a cysticister can live in the host's muscle tissues for several more months, after which it dies.

Under the influence acid environment stomach, the cysticercus membrane is destroyed, and the young individual enters the small intestine. It attaches to the epithelium and begins to grow rapidly, absorbing the nutrients of the host, and its neck forms new proglottids.

Himself and mom and dad

The male genital organs are represented by numerous testes, which look like small vesicles. They produce a large number of spermatozoa, which fertilize the eggs.

Fertilization takes place inside the worm

Numerous tubules depart from the testes, merging into a common vas deferens for each proglottid, which flows into the copulatory organ.

The formation of eggs occurs in the three-lobed ovaries, and their fertilization and accumulation is carried out in the uterus, which has the form of a long hollow tube that runs along the entire length of the segment.

This structure of the reproductive system allows the tapeworm to produce eggs until the strobila is torn off from the mother's body.

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Pork tapeworm is a dangerous helminthiasis. Worm infestation strongly affects the state of the host organism. Pork tapeworm can cause serious complications and even lead to death. Therefore, timely diagnosis of infection and subsequent anthelmintic therapy are so important.

Pork tapeworm reaches an impressive size.

Pork tapeworm (taeniasis) is a helminthiasis that mainly affects the gastrointestinal tract. Teniasis is characteristic of both humans and animals.

Geography of the tapeworm

1. African.
2. Asian.
3. Latin American.

The disease is ubiquitous. Persons in contact with meat products are most at risk of infection: butchers, sellers of meat departments.

Pork tapeworm has a ribbon-like structure. The body length reaches 6 meters and consists of a head with four suckers, a neck and about 1000 square-shaped segments.

The final owner of the tapeworm is a man. The helminth settles in the small intestine. Next, the Finn (an immature individual) turns its head outward and, with the help of hooks and suction cups, is attached to the intestinal wall. The segments of a mature individual gradually separate from the body of the helminth and go into environment along with feces. Helminth is able to stay in the host's body for several decades.

The mechanism of infection is alimentary. The larvae enter the gastrointestinal tract along with poorly processed food, when eating undercooked meat products. In addition, infection is possible through dirty hands and stale linen. The contact route of transmission is not excluded.

Pork tapeworm eggs in animal meat.

The larvae of the tapeworm are thermostable, that is, they are hardly affected by high and low temperatures. So to neutralize the larvae, it is required temperature regime over 80 degrees for an hour. Or freezing infected meat for 10 days at a temperature below minus 15 degrees.

Pork tapeworm, except digestive system, can affect various organs, such as eyes, muscles, brain, liver. In this case, cysticercosis develops - infection of body tissues with larvae of the tapeworm.

Life cycle

A few days after infection, they settle mainly in the muscle tissue of animals. When contaminated meat is consumed, the final host, humans, becomes infected.

Pathogenesis

The impact on the human body of the pork tapeworm is due to a number of pathogenic factors.

1. Toxic-allergic action. Like any other helminth, tapeworm, as a result of its vital activity, produces toxins that poison the host's body. Activated in response to foreign agents the immune system and trigger an allergic reaction.
2. mechanical action. Pork tapeworm affects the mucous, submucosal and sometimes even the muscular layer of the small intestine. By injuring this organ, it disrupts the natural physiological processes of the digestive tract: it negatively affects intestinal motility and the absorption of digested food.
3. Exhausting action. Helminth is a competitive consumer nutrients and trace elements, the assimilation of which occurs in the small intestine of the host. As a result, the nutrition of the tissues of the human body is disturbed and their gradual depletion occurs.

Clinic

To simplify the description of the teniosis clinic, the concept of a symptomatic complex is used. Symptoms characteristic of pork tapeworm infection are combined into separate syndromes.

Thus, astheno-neurotic syndrome, caused by the influence of helminth toxins on the central nervous system, manifests itself in the form of headaches, fatigue, irritability, mood swings. Sleep disturbances such as insomnia and nightmares are observed. A person suffering from teniasis, dramatically loses body weight, experiences a decrease in efficiency and apathy.

For dyspeptic syndrome developing against the background of taeniasis, the character

we have a deterioration in appetite, heaviness in the epigastric region, nausea, belching of food eaten, unstable stools. At the time of the release of helminth eggs in the perianal region, there is a burning sensation and itching.

Abdominal syndrome includes pain in the projection of the stomach. The pain can be both periodic acute and constant, aching in nature.

Diagnostics

A preliminary diagnosis of teniasis is made on the basis of clinical and epidemiological data. This includes patient complaints, physical examination, epidemiological history data: nature of work, contact with raw meat products, living conditions. Clinical symptoms of helminthiasis are nonspecific. Therefore, they require detailed study using special methods.

The subsequent diagnosis of teniosis includes a group of laboratory and instrumental research methods. The purpose of additional methods for diagnosing pork tapeworm is to confirm the presence of helminthiasis and differentiation of the pathogen. Let us consider in more detail the laboratory and instrumental methods of research:

1. General blood analysis. Indirectly confirms the presence of helminths in the human body. Suspicion is caused by eosinophilia - an increased number of special immune cells responsible for the manifestation of an allergic reaction. In addition, due to the absorption of nutrients and blood of the host by the pork tapeworm, iron deficiency anemia is formed.
2. Coproscopy. Careful examination of feces for the presence of segments of the tapeworm. The presence of an ovary with an additional lobule in the terminal segment is a differential diagnostic feature that distinguishes the porcine tapeworm from the bovine one.
3. Scraping. Perianal scraping is examined microscopically for the presence of helminth eggs and tapeworm end segments.
4. Serology. This method is based on the detection in the patient's blood of special protective particles of immunity - antibodies. They are produced in response to the appearance of foreign agents in the body, in this case - helminths and their metabolic products.
5. Additional methods for diagnosing taeniasis include radiography and colonoscopy- examination of the intestinal lumen and its walls.

It is much more difficult to diagnose cysticercosis. For this, X-ray methods and the formulation of immunological reactions are used.

The length reaches 3 meters.

Treatment

Pork tapeworm infection is very dangerous. The fact is that in the case of destruction of the shells of helminth eggs and their entry into the bloodstream, the risk of developing cysticercosis is high. This disease is characterized by the settling of tapeworm larvae in various tissues of the body. It is much more severe than taeniasis and more difficult to treat. Therefore, when confirming the diagnosis of tapeworm, a course of treatment in a hospital is required.

It is necessary to observe table number 13, indicated for patients with helminthiasis. Eating is carried out in small portions, 4-5 times a day. Requires a diet with a high content of vitamins. Preference is given to protein foods. Fats and carbohydrates are significantly reduced, especially easily digestible.

With helminthiasis, table No. 13 is shown.

Before taking the drugs the night before, the patient drinks a glass of tea with crackers. It replaces his dinner. This is followed by a saline laxative. After the end of treatment, an enema should be performed to clean the intestines.

After that, he ceases to hold on to the intestinal wall, detaches from it and exits along with the stool.

Fern seeds also have a similar effect. Fern extract is taken in the morning, strictly on an empty stomach. It can be purchased at the pharmacy in the form of capsules or extracts. The prescribed dose can be taken with jam or sweet tea to improve palatability. After an hour break, a laxative is drunk again. Eating is allowed after another two hours.

Preparations that cause the disintegration of the protective capsule of helminth eggs are strictly prohibited. Their intake can cause cysticercosis.

Folk methods of treatment

One of effective ways The fight against bovine tapeworm is the use of pumpkin seeds. They can be taken both raw and in the form of an infusion. In the latter case, 1 liter of boiling water is taken per 500 grams of seeds. The resulting mixture is infused for a day in a dark, dry place. For the treatment of teniasis, you need to drink half a glass of tincture in the morning on an empty stomach. The therapeutic course is 2 weeks.

Among the folk methods of treating pork tapeworm, deworming with hot pepper is successfully used. No wonder in southern countries for cooking meat dishes a lot of spices are used.

An effective way is also herbal medicine in the form of collections of wormwood, tansy, corn silk and cloves. A similar method is also effective as a course of anthelmintic prophylaxis.

Compliance with certain rules will significantly reduce the risk of infection with a pork tapeworm.

First of all, you should refrain from buying meat products in dubious institutions. This process should take place only in special food establishments. If necessary, you can provide all Required documents confirming the quality of the product.

Before cooking, examine the chopped piece of meat for the presence of finns - bubbles in the muscle tissue containing the eggs of the pork tapeworm. They look like yellowish blotches the size of a pea.

Cooking meat requires good heat treatment: thorough long frying, stewing or boiling. Do not use meat utensils when preparing other foods. It is best to contact raw meat gloved. And in no case do not taste raw minced meat.

If characteristic symptoms appear and helminthiasis is suspected, be sure to seek help from a specialist.

Forecast

After deworming, the patient becomes a dispensary for a period of 4 months. Every month, a control study of feces for the presence of eggs of the tapeworm and its segments is performed. If the results of the quadruple study were negative, we are talking about a cure for taeniasis.

The earlier the treatment of pork tapeworm is started, the higher the likelihood of a favorable outcome. Otherwise, there is an increase in symptoms, which depends on the reactivity of the body and the degree of infection.

With the defeat of other systems, except for the digestive system, death is not uncommon. Therapy in these cases is ineffective.

Associate Professor, Candidate of Medical Sciences - Dvornichenko Victoria Vladimirovna: