Parasites often prevent a person from living normally, because they greatly weaken the body. What representatives most often parasitize in us, as well as how to deal with them - the article will tell.
Parasites are creatures that live and feed off of their host. They can inhabit all animals, fish, birds, as well as humans. This causes a lot of problems, because these creatures pretty much spoil health. Parasites in the human body can live in the liver, intestines, blood, even attack the brain and lungs. What are the most common types? There are several different categories of parasites: flat and round worms, protozoa and insects. How they affect the body, and how to expel them - the article will tell.
Types of parasites
As already mentioned, there are different types of parasites in the human body:
- protozoa (trypanosome, malaria plasmodium, lamblia, dysentery amoeba);
- flatworms (cat fluke, liver fluke, bovine and pork tapeworm);
- roundworms (roundworm, pinworm);
- insects (lice, gadfly, fleas);
- chelicerae (mites).
These species most often attack the human body. All of them are united by the fact that they feed on the juices and tissues of their host, slowly killing him. It is difficult to expel any of them, because each has a lot of attachment devices (suckers, hooks, chelicerae), and some even settle in the cells of the body, from where it is simply impossible to expel them.
Probably everyone knows about lice, fleas and ticks, because these creatures live on the surface of the body, it is easy to find them, and it is a little easier to fight. But not everyone is aware of the internal parasites of the body, and in fact they are the most dangerous to health.
The simplest
These small organisms are found everywhere:
- in water;
- earth;
- air.
It is impossible to see them, because they consist of only one cell. There are harmless representatives: ciliate shoe, proteus amoeba, green euglena and others. Some even help animals, for example, some ciliates digest cellulose from grass for cows, but there are many parasites among this abundance.
Malaria plasmodium
This native of Central Africa haunts many countries today. Plasmodium malaria is carried by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, which are not very picky, and the main thing for them is heat and water. Many countries carried out prevention of the disease: they drained the swamps, destroyed the larvae, and the disease retreated there, but this parasite is still raging in the region of Central Africa and South America.
Once in the body, malaria plasmodium goes through two stages: hepatic and erythrocyte. The first one passes after a few hours. Plasmodium attacks liver cells, enters them, begins to multiply, and feeds on the host's nutrients. At this time, a person already feels the first unpleasant symptoms:
- headache;
- nausea;
- lack of appetite.
After a few days, the parasite leaves the liver into the bloodstream and settles in red blood cells. He lives there for a long time. Every 3-4 days he leaves one and enters the other. The exit is accompanied by the release of the waste products of the protozoan, therefore, the owner's temperature rises quickly and strongly, fever, vomiting and intestinal disorders begin.
Treatment for Plasmodium malaria is difficult, because the parasite hides in the host's cells. When the main symptoms of the disease manifest, it is necessary to call an ambulance and constantly water the patient before her arrival, because the temperature and fever cause dehydration. A type of plasmodium will be installed in the hospital (there are more than 5 of them), and treatment will be prescribed.
Prevention is simple - fencing your place of residence with a mosquito net if there are breeding grounds for the Anopheles mosquito in the district, as well as draining swamps or flooding their surface with special means that create a film through which mosquito larvae cannot breathe and die.
Giardia and dysentery amoeba
Both of these parasites live in the human digestive organs, and any animal can become their host. They penetrate the body along with dirty water, unwashed fruits or vegetables. Their favorite places are the liver ducts, the small intestine and the upper part of the large intestine.
Symptoms will not be long in coming, and it is difficult not to notice them. The first manifestations are stool disorders. Over time, the temperature rises sharply, severe diarrhea and vomiting begins. Most often, a person dies from dehydration, because the last two symptoms practically do not stop, the patient quickly loses water.
The fight against these parasites consists in drinking plenty of clean boiled water and taking special salt packets - preparations containing a special composition of salts that help to retain water in the body. Prevention is also simple - washing products, monitoring the state of drinking water, because it is she who is the source of the reproduction of these parasites.
Flat worms
Parasites in the human body can be both unicellular and multicellular. These are flatworms. The name comes from their shape, because they are really flat, because they breathe with the entire surface of the body, so they try to reduce the volume as much as possible. There are 3 types of flatworms: ciliates, flukes, and tapeworms. The first ones are completely harmless, they live in land or water. But the second two classes are exclusively parasites.
Suckers
These are small worms that have suckers on their mouth and belly. They prefer to live in our body inside the duct of the liver and gallbladder. These helminths have two main life phases - a larva and an adult. The host for the larvae can be aquatic mollusks (liver fluke), fish (cat fluke), but cattle and humans are permanent.
Adults most often settle in the area of the liver, but sometimes they can enter the intestines, lungs, even the brain. Their accommodation is accompanied by:
- headache;
- losing weight;
- lack of appetite;
- anemia.
They can only be killed by special anthelmintic drugs, which the doctor will prescribe, depending on the type of parasite.
Prevention is simple: do not drink water and try not to swim in bodies of stagnant water, and also do not chew blades of grass in the field, as many people like to do, because flatworm larvae can also be on the grass.
Tape
Tapeworms are so called because these parasites are of great length (with the exception of echinococcus), so they really look like a ribbon. They also develop with a change of "place of residence", but most often it is the person who is the permanent owner for them.
Bovine and pork tapeworms attack the small intestine. They are attached with suction cups and hooks, so they cannot be taken out of there by feces. They are constantly growing, can reach a length of 10 meters or more. They can only be driven out of there with special drugs that will kill the parasite, the suckers will relax, it will fall off and come out with feces.
One of the most dangerous representatives of tapeworms is echinococcus. The host of its larva is man and herbivores, and the adult worm settles in predators. It is the larval stage of the parasite that is dangerous, because it differs in structure from the one that forms the tapeworm.
The echinococcal larva is a sac in which many larvae develop. Such a structure can attack the brain, lungs, intestines, liver. She is dangerous with her unlimited growth, because sooner or later she simply tears the tissues of the owner. If echinococcus has struck the brain or lungs, then only an operation can save the patient, but it can also be dangerous.
If tapeworms have settled in our body, then we urgently need to go to the hospital, because they are constantly growing, clogging the intestines (tapeworms), affecting the lungs or the brain (echinococcus), drinking all the vital juices and killing their host. Prevention consists in checking meat and fish for small white or yellowish larvae. If such are present, then such a product should never be eaten!
Round worms
Many have also heard about roundworms, because they poison the lives of people no less often than flat ones, especially small children suffer from them. The most "famous" representatives are roundworms and pinworms, which inhabit the human intestine. Sometimes they can get into other organs: liver, eyes, brain.
Roundworms develop with a change in habitat: the larvae live in the lungs of a person, and adults in the intestines. The name "round" characterizes their cross-sectional shape - they are really round.
These worms do not have attachment devices, but they do have muscles that help them resist the feces. Sometimes they themselves crawl out of the body (pinworm) and lay eggs on the anus.
It is children who suffer from them, because babies do not know the rules of hygiene, therefore, having combed the place of deposition of eggs, they can pull their fingers into their mouth and become infected again.
Treatment is possible with drugs prescribed by a doctor. If the mother of a baby with pinworm is afraid to give him pills, then you can cure him without them. To do this, it is necessary at 5-6 in the morning (it is at this time that the female leaves the body and lays eggs around the anus) to wipe the inside of the priests with vodka, and then lubricate the treatment site with baby cream so as not to dry out the delicate skin.
Prevention consists in the fact that you need to constantly monitor hygiene: wash your hands after touching the ground, do not drink dirty water.
Parasite test
If you have doubts about your own health, you can test for the presence of parasites in the body. If any of the following symptoms are present, put a plus sign.
- Weight loss is observed without diets or changes in diet.
- The temperature is constantly increased in the region of 37-37. 5 grams.
- There is no appetite or, on the contrary, you constantly want to eat.
- There is often a desire to eat something sweet.
- Increased headaches.
- Hot flashes of weakness.
- Stool disorders.
- Nausea or vomiting
- Allergic rashes or swelling.
- Pain in the liver and intestines.
- Fainting (if the brain is affected).
- Trembling hands.
- Constant pallor.
If there are from 1 to 4 pluses, then this means that there are no worms, but the person is experiencing constant stress, is sick or has problems with the digestive tract. If there are from 5 to 7 pluses, then there is a suspicion of the presence of parasites, but more than 8 positive answers indicate real problems, so an urgent need to consult a doctor.
Parasites poison the human body, weaken the immune system, prevent them from leading a normal active life, so you need to remember about the symptoms of their manifestation and methods of treatment, as well as preventive measures, because only then you can protect yourself and your family.