In this article, we will tell you about opisthorchiasis. Symptoms and treatment in adults of this disease will also be presented below.
General information
What is opisthorchiasis? In humans, this disease is caused by parasitic flatworms, which belong to the genus Opisthorchis viverrini and Opisthorchis felineus.
This disease is common in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and in the countries of South and East Asia. Infection with such a disease affects not only humans, but also animals.
Which fish can contain flat parasitic worms? According to experts, most often they are found in the cyprinid family. Thus, people become infected when they receive insufficiently heat-treated or raw river fish.
History reference
When were parasitic flukes detected in humans? Worms were first found on April 3, 1891 during a postmortem autopsy conducted by Professor K. N. Vinogradov.
Based on the fact that this parasite is not found in everyone, but only in people and animals that live near fresh water bodies, experts suggested that infection with opisthorchiasis occurs in the process of eating fish.
Infection and pathogen
The causative agents of such a disease as opisthorchiasis are hepatic flukes. Worms develop in the body of cyprinids and mollusks. As for the final hosts, they are carnivores and humans.
Infection of mollusks occurs when they swallow eggs from ponds. Eggs undergo metamorphoses in the body of the mollusk. The cercariae formed as a result of this process leave the living organism, and then are introduced into the body of fish of the cyprinidae family. They are located in the subcutaneous tissue and muscles. It is in fish that parasites turn into metacercariae. 7 weeks after carp infection, the worms can infect the final host.
In the stomach and in the small intestine, metacercaria are released from cysts, and then penetrate through the ducts into the gallbladder and passages of the liver. After 10-12 days, they reach puberty and lay their eggs.
In the human body, such parasites can inhabit for 15-20 years.
Signs of infection
What signs are characteristic of a disease such as opisthorchiasis? Symptoms and treatment in adults we will consider in this article.
The presence of parasites in the human body can be understood between 5 and 42 days after infection. This disease can occur in moderate, mild and severe form. Its incubation period lasts about 21 days.
So how does opisthorchiasis of the liver manifest? Symptoms of such a disease develop gradually. The patient may complain of severe weakness, malaise, and periodic sweating. In the future, the course of the disease passes subclinically, that is, its symptoms are weakly expressed. The patient rises to 38 degrees.
An acute form of the disease can also be observed. At the same time, severe fever and an increase in temperature to 39-39.5 degrees are noted. Such signs are supplemented by catarrhal phenomena of the upper respiratory tract, a moderate increase in ESR, an increase in eosinophilia and leukocytosis.
After 2-4 weeks, the patient's condition stabilizes. This is due to the fact that chronic opisthorchiasis occurs.
How does it affect the human body?
Now you know what opisthorchiasis is. Infection with such a parasitic disease occurs as a result of eating fish.
The pathogenesis of this disease is based on the toxic and mechanical effects of worms on the host.
Huge damage to the walls of the bile ducts is caused by opisthorchias during fixation and during movement. With the help of their suction cups, they are drawn into the cavity of the mucosa and, pinching it, contribute to impaired blood circulation, and sometimes tissue integrity.
Large accumulations of such parasites and their eggs interfere with the flow of bile and the secretion of the pancreas. This can cause the expansion (cystic) of the bile ducts.
The bile stasis provoked by worms creates the conditions for the development of infection. It should also be noted that the metabolic products of parasites often cause sensitization and allergic reactions.
Diagnosis of the disease
The diagnosis of opisthorchiasis is based on the clinical picture and epidemiological data. Most often, such diseases affect people living in an endemic area, as well as eating under-cooked fish.
Due to the fact that opisthorchiasis is characterized by signs characteristic of hepatic diseases, the diagnosis cannot be made by the doctor on the basis of only one clinical picture. To confirm the disease, you must definitely pass a number of tests.
Feces on opisthorchiasis can detect parasite eggs in duodenal juice. It should be borne in mind that such larvae appear in it no earlier than four weeks after infection.
The presence of less than 100 eggs per 1 g of feces indicates a mild infection, and over 30,000 - extremely severe.
As for adult worms, they can be detected by endoscopy. Computed and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as ultrasound, reveal indirect signs of opisthorchiasis, such as fibrosis of the bile ducts, structural changes, or enlargement of the liver or gall bladder.
Blood for opisthorchiasis should also be carefully analyzed. Non-specific symptoms of this disease include eosinophilia, especially at an early stage, an increase in the level of alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and serum transaminase in combination with low levels of serum albumin.
Research methods
Despite the fact that egg detection is the gold standard in diagnosing this disease, molecular and immunological methods are increasingly used to detect worms in the human body.
Such methods quite quickly detect parasite antigens in the blood and make it possible to judge the stage of development of the disease.
Opisthorchiasis: symptoms and treatment in adults
Treatment of opisthorchiasis requires an integrated approach. Along with taking specific anthelmintic agents, measures should also be taken in respect of the patient, which are aimed at restoring the disturbed work of the digestive tract.
What drugs should an opisthorchiasis treatment regimen include? Therapy of this disease is carried out with the following medicines Praziquantel, Albendazole, and Chloxyl. They should be taken only as directed by the doctor, after laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis.
In most cases, the treatment of this disease is outpatient. If the patient has decompensation of the functions of the organs and neuropsychological diseases are observed, then the therapy is carried out in a hospital. The same applies to people with acute stage of opisthorchiasis. By the way, in the latter case, treatment is carried out only after the elimination of allergic manifestations and intoxication, as well as relief of fever attacks.
For patients with chronic opisthorchiasis, combination therapy is required, which is aimed at stopping acute conditions, as well as achieving remission of concomitant diseases. After this, specific treatment is carried out.
Forecast
Can opisthorchiasis be cured (symptoms and treatment in adults have been described above)? In most cases, doctors managed to overcome parasitic worms.
Cases of death caused by the development of liver failure were extremely rare.
It should be noted that the prognosis is serious in acute pancreatitis, the development of purulent processes in the biliary system and biliary peritonitis, and is also extremely unfavorable in primary liver cancer.
Having been ill with opisthorchiasis, they need to be monitored at the dispensary for at least six months.
Alternative treatment of opisthorchiasis
Often people with opisthorchiasis try to cure it themselves. Doctors take this extremely negatively. Although patients themselves argue that such methods work no worse than medical methods.
Consider several folk recipes that help cure opisthorchiasis.
Therapy with this agent should be carried out according to the scheme: on the first day in the morning on an empty stomach take 1 drop of birch tar, after dissolving it in a dessert spoon of boiled water. On the second day, 2 drops are already consumed, and so on - up to 10 days. After this, the dosage is gradually reduced in the reverse order.
Linden branches are burned, and ash is collected in a jar. Next, one dessert spoon of ash is brewed in a glass of hot milk and given to the patient before meals. Take this remedy every day for two weeks.
Three cloves of garlic are chopped and poured with a glass of milk. Then the mixture is brought to a boil and 3-4 buds of gzodiki are added to it. After two minutes, the broth is removed, cooled and filtered. It is consumed one glass three times a day 60 minutes before meals for 10 days.
A glass of fresh and finely chopped leaves of the plant is wrapped in clean gauze and lowered into a large bowl. After that, the same amount of sugar, two tablespoons of sour cream and two liters of whey are added to it. The finished mixture is stored in a warm and dark place for two weeks, periodically mixing. Next, the drug is taken in half a glass three times a day.
50 g of cloves and 500 g of flaxseed are ground in a coffee grinder and mixed. The finished product is used with food or in its pure form, washed down with liquid.
10 large spoons of this product is poured with 1 liter of boiling water and boiled for 20 minutes. Next, the broth is filtered and cooled. The treatment is carried out as follows: 1 large spoonful of the drug is taken 3 times a day before meals. The course of treatment is three weeks.
Preventive actions
To prevent the development of such a disease, it is necessary to eat only well-cooked and boiled, as well as carefully salted fish. In addition, the product should be decontaminated by deep freezing.
Cook fish in the cyprinids family in portions. The cooking time should not be less than 20 minutes from the moment of boiling the broth. Fish dumplings must be cooked for longer than 5 minutes.
In the process of frying cutlets from carp or its pieces, it is necessary to ensure that each side of the product is in boiling fat for at least ¼ hour.
Small fish can be processed on the stove as a whole for 15-25 minutes. It is advisable to bake pies with this ingredient for about an hour.
In order to prevent further spread and possible infection with parasites, it is strictly forbidden to dump fish processing waste into landfills and ponds, as well as to feed them to animals, including domestic ones, without preliminary disinfection.
To summarize
Now you know what a disease like opisthorchiasis is. We also talked about how to treat it and what symptoms can be identified, in this article. Observing all the prescription requirements for the heat treatment of cyprinids, you can prevent the parasite from entering your body.