Parasites often prevent a person from living normally because they severely weaken the body. Which representatives parasitize in us most often and how to deal with it - the article will show.
Parasites are creatures that live on and feed on their host. They can inhabit all animals, fish, birds as well as humans. This causes a lot of problems as these creatures are pretty bad for health. Parasites in the human body can live in the liver, intestines and blood and even attack the brain and lungs. What are the most common types? There are different categories of parasites: flat and round worms, protozoa and insects. How they affect the body and how to expel them - the article will show.
Types of parasites
As mentioned earlier, there are several types of parasites in the human body:
- Protozoa (trypanosome, malaria plasmodium, lamblia, dysentery);
- Flatworms (cat, liver, beef and pork tapeworm);
- Roundworms (roundworm, pinworm);
- Insects (lice, gadfly, fleas);
- Chelicerae (mites).
These types most often attack the human body. Everyone agrees that they feed on their host's juices and tissues and slowly kill him. It is difficult to drive out any of them, as each one has many fastening devices (suction cups, hooks, chelicerae) and some even settle in the cells of the body, from where it is simply impossible to drive them out.
Probably everyone knows lice, fleas and ticks, because these creatures live on the surface of the body, it is easy to find them, and it is a bit easier to fight. But not everyone is aware of the body's internal parasites, and in fact, they are the most dangerous for health.
The easiest
These little organisms can be found everywhere:
- in water;
- Earth;
- Air.
It is impossible to see them because they only consist of 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 parasites abound in this abundance.
Malaria plasmodium
The native of Central African pursues many countries today. Plasmodium malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, which are not very picky, and the main thing for them is heat and water. Many countries have prevented the disease: they drained the swamps, destroyed the larvae and the disease has retreated there, but this parasite is still raging in the Central Africa and South America region.
In the body, malaria plasmodium goes through two stages: liver and erythrocytes. The first passes after a few hours. Plasmodium attacks liver cells, invades them, begins to multiply and feeds on the host's nutrients. At this point, a person is already feeling the first unpleasant symptoms:
- A headache;
- Nausea;
- Loss 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 leakage is accompanied by the release of waste products of the protozoa, therefore the owner's temperature rises rapidly and sharply, fever, vomiting and intestinal disorders begin.
Treating Plasmodium malaria is difficult because the parasite hides in the host's cells. When the main symptoms of the disease appear, it is necessary to call an ambulance and constantly water the patient before arriving, as the temperature and fever cause dehydration. A type of plasmodium is installed in the hospital (there are more than 5 of them) and treatment is prescribed.
Prevention is simple: you can surround your place of residence with a mosquito net if there are breeding grounds for the Anopheles mosquito in the district, drain swamps or flood their surface with special means that create a film through which mosquito larvae cannot breathe and die.
Giardia and dysentery amoeba
Both parasites live in the human digestive system, and any animal can become their host. They enter the body along with dirty water, unwashed fruits or vegetables. Her favorite places are the liver ducts, the small intestine, and the upper part of the large intestine.
Symptoms won't be long in coming and it's difficult not to notice them. The first manifestations are stool disorders. Over time, the temperature rises sharply, severe diarrhea and vomiting begin. Most often, a person dies of dehydration because the last two symptoms practically do not stop, and the patient quickly loses water.
The fight against these parasites is to drink a lot of clean boiled water and take special packets of salt - preparations that contain a special composition of salts that help keep the water in the body. Prevention is also simple - washing products, monitoring the condition of drinking water, because it is the source of these parasites' reproduction.
Flat worms
Parasites in the human body can be both unicellular and multicellular. They 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, leeches and tapeworms. The former are pretty harmless, they live on land or on water. However, the second two classes are strictly parasites.
Suction cups
These are small worms that have suckers on their mouth and stomach. They prefer to live in the ducts of the liver and gallbladder in our body. These helminths have two main phases of life - a larva and an adult. The host for the larvae can be water mollusks (liver fluke), fish (cat flake), but cattle and humans are permanent.
Adults mostly settle in the liver area, but sometimes they can get to the intestines, lungs, and even the brain. Your accommodation will be accompanied by:
- A headache;
- Lose weight;
- Loss of appetite;
- Anemia.
They can only be killed by special anthelmintics that the doctor prescribes depending on the type of parasite.
Prevention is simple: don't drink water, try not to swim in stagnant water, or chew blades of grass in the field, as many people like to do, as flatworm larvae can be in the grass too.
tape
Tapeworms are so named because these parasites are very long (with the exception of Echinococcus) so they really look like a ribbon. They also develop with a change of "place of residence", but most of the time it is the person who is the permanent owner for them.
Beef and pork tapeworms attack the small intestine. They are attached with suction cups and hooks so that they cannot be taken out by feces. They are constantly growing, can reach a length of 10 meters or more. They can only be expelled with special drugs that kill the parasite, the suckers relax, it falls off and comes out with feces.
One of the most dangerous representatives of tapeworms is Echinococcus. The host of its larva is humans and herbivores, and the adult worm settles in predators. It is the larval stage of the parasite that is dangerous because it is different in structure from that which forms the tapeworm.
The echinococcal larva is a sac in which many larvae develop. Such a structure can attack the brain, lungs, intestines, and liver. It is dangerous with its unlimited growth because sooner or later it will simply tear the tissues of the owner. If Echinococcus hits the brain or lungs, only surgery can save the patient, but it can also be dangerous.
If tapeworms have settled in our bodies, we urgently need to go to the hospital because they are constantly growing, clogging the intestines (tapeworms), affecting the lungs or brain (Echinococcus), drinking all the vital juices and killing their host. Prevention consists in examining meat and fish for small white or yellowish larvae. If there are any, such a product should never be eaten!
Round worms
Many have also heard of round worms because they poison people's lives no less often than flat, especially small children who suffer from them. The "most famous" representatives are roundworms and pinworms that live in the human intestine. Sometimes they can get to other organs: liver, eyes, brain.
Roundworms develop with a change in habitat: the larvae live in a person's lungs, and adults in the intestine. The name "round" indicates their cross-sectional shape - they are really round.
These worms don't have fastening devices, but they do have muscles that help them withstand the feces. Sometimes they crawl out of the body by themselves (pinworm) and lay eggs on the anus.
It is children who suffer from it because babies do not know the rules of hygiene. After combing the place where the eggs are laid, they can put their fingers in their mouths and get 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, you can cure him without them. To do this, it is necessary to wipe the inside of the priests with vodka at 5-6 in the morning (at this time the female leaves the body and lays eggs around the anus), and then smear the treatment site with baby cream to protect the sensitiveDon't dry out skin.
Prevention consists in the fact that you need to constantly monitor hygiene: wash your hands after touching the floor, do not drink dirty water.
Parasite test
If you have any doubts about your own health, it can be tested for the presence of parasites in the body. If you have any of the following symptoms, put a plus sign.
- Weight loss is observed without dieting or dietary changes.
- The temperature is constantly increased in the range of 37-37. 5 grams.
- There is no appetite or, on the contrary, you want to eat all the time.
- There is often a desire to eat something sweet.
- Increased headache.
- Hot flashes of weakness.
- Stool disorders.
- Nausea or vomiting
- Allergic rashes or swelling.
- Pain in the liver and intestines.
- Fainting (when the brain is affected).
- Shaking hands.
- Constant pallor.
If there are 1 to 4 pluses, it means that there are no worms, but the person is under constant stress, is sick, or has digestive problems. If there are 5 to 7 pluses, then the presence of parasites is suspected, but more than 8 positive answers indicate real problems, so it is necessary to urgently consult a doctor.
Parasites poison the human body, weaken the immune system, prevent them from leading a normal active life. Therefore, you need to remember the symptoms of their manifestation and methods of treatment, as well as preventive measures, because only then can you protect yourself and your family.