Symptoms of infection, cycle and treatment of Hymenolepis nana
Hyenolepiase is a disease caused by the parasite Hymenolepis nana, which can infect children and adults and cause diarrhea, weight loss and abdominal discomfort.
- Infection with this parasite is caused by the consumption of contaminated food and water.
- So it is important to take preventive measures.
- Such as washing hands and food before preparing them.
- See other measures to prevent worms.
The diagnosis of hemenoleposit is made by finding eggs in the stool and treatment is usually done with the use of pest control agents, such as praziquantel, for example.
Symptoms of H. nana infection are rare, but when a person’s immune system is weakened or when there are a large number of parasites in the gut, some symptoms may be noticed, such as:
In addition, the presence of the parasite in the intestinal lining can cause ulcers to form, which can be quite painful. In rarer cases, hymenpososis can cause nervous system-related symptoms, such as seizures, loss of consciousness, and seizures.
Diagnosis is made by examining the faeces that aims to identify the presence of parasite eggs, small, semi-spherical, transparent and surrounded by a thin membrane. Understand how the stool test is performed.
Hemennolepose is treated with medications that normally do not cause side effects, such as praziquantel and niclosamide.
Although it is an easy-to-treat parasite, it is important to prevent hymenseposed by prophylactic measures to reduce infection with this parasite. For example, it is important to adopt better hygiene habits, such as washing hands before eating and after going to the bathroom, washing food before preparing it, and taking insect and rodent control measures, as they can be intermediary guests. hymenolepis nana.
Hymenolepis nana can have two types of life cycle: monooxénic, in which there is no intermediate, heteroxenic host, in which there is an intermediate host, such as rats and fleas, for example.
One of the factors that facilitates infection with this parasite is the short lifespan of parasites: adult worms can only survive 14 days in the body and therefore quickly release eggs, which can survive up to 10 days in the external environment, with enough time for a new infection to occur.
In addition, the fact that it is an infection easy to contract, environments with high concentration of people, such as nurseries, schools and prisons, which in addition to having many people together, the health conditions are precarious, facilitate the transmission of the disease. Parasite.