Enterobiosis is the most common type of helminthiasis. The causative agents of enterobiosis are pinworms, which usually parasitize along the entire length of the colon, as well as in the lower part of the small. Fertilized pinworm females exit through the anus at night in order to lay eggs in the skin folds, which soon (after 6-7 hours) become invasive. The source of invasion is a person infected with enterobiosis. Most often, this disease affects children who attend kindergartens, and re-self-infection very often occurs, therefore, in children’s kindergartens, feces are regularly analyzed for enterobiosis. In addition, scraping for enterobiosis in children of all groups is taken.
The appearance of the first symptoms of pinworm infection is noted 10-14 days after the moment of infection, during this period the pinworms reach puberty and begin to multiply. The main clinical signs are: a burning sensation and itching in the external genitalia, perineum and anus. Most often, these symptoms occur at night. As the enterobiosis pathogens accumulate in the intestines, itching becomes constant and quite painful. In addition, in children, sleep is disturbed, irritability and moodiness appear. Quite often dizziness, fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, abdominal pain, grinding of teeth and loose stools occur . Diagnosis of enterobiosis is very straightforward, for this purpose scraping for enterobiosis from the anal folds is performed. It is desirable that the analysis for enterobiosis was performed three times with an interval of three to five days.
Over the years of coexistence with humans, pinworms have perfectly adapted and learned to withstand many medications. There are cases when this disease proceeded without any pronounced clinical symptoms, or the symptoms coincided with the manifestations of another type of helminths.
If scraping for enterobiosis gave a positive result, the most important thing is the exclusion of the possibility of repeated self-infection and infection of others. Otherwise, taking medications will not give any results. It is necessary to observe the rules of personal hygiene, constantly wash hands (and not only), do regular wet cleaning, iron things. Pinworms have a lifespan of only one month, so the key to the success of treatment is cleanliness that prevents re-infection. Of the medications, anthelmintics are usually prescribed - mebendazole, pyrantel, etc., which effectively affect both sexually mature larvae and parasite eggs.
The course of treatment should be supplemented by disinfection of things and household items with which a person infected with pinworms was in contact. A number of sanitary-hygienic measures are necessary in the house:
- All bed linen must be boiled for half an hour, and after drying, ironed thoroughly on both sides;
- In all, without exception, the premises of the apartment, it is necessary to conduct a thorough wet cleaning using disinfectants;
- All toys must be washed with soap;
- Carpets, carpets and rugs should be vacuumed, and then wet-treated.
Enterobiosis in children is dangerous because the child most likely will not understand that something is wrong with him. Symptoms of the disease worsen at night, and the child performs combing of itchy places in a dream, reflexively. Most often, parents will learn about the presence of enterobiosis in the child after they are infected with pinworms, or until everyone in the kindergarten does scraping for enterobiosis. It is important to ask the child about his well-being and explain that if he feels something unusual, he should immediately inform his parents about it.