Pinworms are worms that are considered the most common in the world. The Latin name for this helminth is Enterobius. During egg laying, these parasites irritate the skin, causing severe itching. When combing, pinworm eggs fall under the plates of the nails and then penetrate the oral cavity, organs of the digestive system. As a result, an individual develops enterobiosis. In this article, we will look at how pinworm eggs look in a person and how to get rid of them.
general information
Several types of pinworms are known. Enterobius vermicularis parasitizes in the body of an individual. Quite often, these helminths attack babies. A child’s habit of biting his nails and putting his fingers in his mouth increases the risk of infection, which is not related to race, social status, gender or culture. Pinworms in the sections of the large and small intestines parasitize.
A vesicle is located at the anterior end of the parasite's body, which surrounds the mouth opening and serves as an attachment to the intestine. The adult pinworm has a length of 8 to 13 mm, its back is pointed, and the thickness is not more than 0.5 mm. The male is a little shorter, its length is about 3 mm. The back of it is wavy. The uterus of females is stretched, and when it is filled with eggs, it fills the entire surface of the body. What do pinworm eggs look like? They are transparent, colorless, asymmetric and equipped with a thin shell. Inside the egg is a larva with a grayish tint. Transparency and very small size make them invisible to the naked eye. Development, fertilization and growth is carried out in the small intestine, it is there that conditions are favorable for these processes. Next, the helminth moves to the cecum and large intestine, in which it lives before death.
Pinworms Life Cycle
The development cycle of the parasite is from 14 to 21 days. In some cases, it increases to 30. It starts from the moment of ingestion of worm eggs. During this period, females lay thousands of eggs. Females live up to 13 weeks, and males - half as much. After mating, males die immediately. Females, attached to the intestinal mucosa, feed on its contents. In the body of a female individual, there can be up to 16 thousand eggs, that is, her whole body is practically filled with them. As a result, the females lose their ability to fix and go down the colon. Their movement occurs in a humid environment. During the human sleep period, females crawl out through the anus. Stimulates egg laying dry dermis. After this, the individual returns to the large intestine and dies. Crawling parasites causes itching. When combing these areas of the skin, the eggs easily penetrate under the nail plate and can get into the oral cavity. Thus, despite the short period of life of helminths, an individual is able to get sick for a long time. Enterobiosis is considered an intractable disease.
Pinworms in the vagina
In women, pinworm eggs (as they look, can be seen in the photo below) can penetrate the vagina. In this case, inflammation and irritation of its mucous membranes occurs. Signs that indicate the presence of helminths in the female genital organs:
- pain in the abdomen;
- discharge having a milky color;
- there is a sensation of movement in the vagina;
- when urinating, pain occurs;
- the vaginal mucosa becomes red.
The presence of helminths is dangerous with complications that lead to a malfunction of reproductive function.
Pinworm eggs
Enterobiosis is most often diagnosed in babies. Moms of kids are interested in how the pinworm eggs look and how much they live? It is impossible to make out with the naked eye, since their size is negligible. In addition, parasite eggs are colorless. If a child suspects or identifies symptoms of infection, you must consult a doctor and pass the appropriate tests. In this case, scrapings for enterobiosis and fecal analysis are indicated. Biomaterial is examined in a laboratory under a microscope. Helminth eggs are contagious and are laid by the female in large quantities. After a few hours, larvae mature in them, which are small, mobile, white colored worms. Now you know what pinworm eggs look like (photo).
How many live and how to get rid of them? Parasites prefer to live in a humid environment. A temperature of 18-40 degrees is considered the most comfortable for them. In such conditions, helminths exist for more than one month. They perish in the cold, when boiled, under the influence of ultraviolet when using a quartz lamp. Thirty minutes of exposure to such a lamp is enough for pinworm eggs to die in the external environment. Eggs laid on household items in the room of an infected individual should be taken out in the cold. Underwear and bed linen are recommended to be washed every day, after boiling. It is desirable to iron on both sides.
Why are pinworm eggs dangerous?
The microscopic size of the eggs allows us to consider them only under a strong increase. What do pinworm eggs look like under a microscope? The photo below will answer this question. The laboratory assistant, examining the biomaterial, observes the following picture. The shape of the egg is oval, with one side more convex. Inside is an elongated larva. The egg shell consists of two contours and is completely colorless.
By themselves, they do not pose a health hazard to the individual. The threat comes from the worms that emerge from them. Adult individuals and their larvae contribute to a deterioration in well-being, an upset digestive system, and provoke irritation and itching in the anus. Enterobiosis is caused by pinworm eggs. Due to the fact that the female individual lays a huge number of them, there is a big risk of re-infection of the patient, including those around him. In the early stages, the clinic is weakly expressed. Repeated infection contributes to an increase in the number of helminths in the intestine, and the absence of treatment is fraught with serious complications. The prognosis will depend on timely diagnosis and effective therapy.
How to get rid of pinworm eggs?
To prevent re-infection with parasites, you need to get rid of their eggs. To do this, carry out the following activities:
- Soft objects surrounding the patient, it is recommended to ventilate, take out in the cold. Worm eggs have a devastating effect on eggs.
- For a long time, pinworm eggs (as they look, described above) can be in underwear or bedding. At the same time, the ability to develop and reproduce is preserved in them. Of course, to see them is not possible. However, daily linen change, subsequent boiling and washing is an excellent preventive measure.
- It is impossible to see pinworm eggs under the nails, but to avoid the risk of reinfection, they should be cut short and cleaned with a soft brush using antibacterial agents.
- Personal hygiene is the main way to prevent a disease. Daily shower, hand washing after visiting the sanitary room are also considered precautionary measures.
- Strong immunity allows you to protect the body of the individual from the invasion of parasites.
Pinworms in the feces. Treatment
What do pinworm eggs look like in feces? Alas, seeing them is unrealistic. You can only see with a microscope in a laboratory. They are irregular in shape, colorless and provided with a thin shell. Directly in the feces, you can see adult females, as they are much larger than males. In appearance, they are whitish worms. The following methods are used to detect eggs:
- Scraping on enterobiosis. Hand it over three times to confirm the diagnosis.
- Analysis of feces for the presence of parasite eggs.
- Blood analysis.
The surest sign that indicates the presence of helminths in the body is an itch in the anus. If such a symptom is found, it is recommended to consult a doctor. Since the naked eye does not consider how pinworm eggs look, treatment begins immediately after receiving the results of the analysis. For therapy, the following medications are used:
- Vermox
- "Pirantel";
- "Nemozol";
- The Dekaris.
The dosage and course of treatment is determined by the doctor. In the standard regimen, treatment is repeated up to two times with an interval of 14 days. Compulsory therapy is subject to all family members. Self-medication is not recommended due to their toxicity.
Teaching the baby to observe personal hygiene, keeping hands and nails clean, and also using clean underwear and bedding will not raise parents' question about what pinworm eggs look like in a child's feces.
How does infection happen?
Under favorable conditions, parasite eggs are able to maintain their vital activity for a long period. Therefore, you can get infected with enterobiosis in many places. Most often this happens when:
- the use of vegetables and fruits that have not undergone sufficient processing, i.e., have not been thoroughly washed;
- work in the fresh air, for example on a country site;
- contact with a sick individual, using his things or objects, as well as with a handshake;
- visiting shopping centers;
- visits to common areas;
- self-infection;
- the presence of pets in the apartment.
There are three main ways of infection: oral, household and contact. It is important to remember that pinworm eggs (they look like you can see in the photo and video) are a bigger problem than adult worms.
Mature worms die at a certain stage of the life cycle, and eggs for a long period are able to maintain viability and are easily tolerated. When they enter the body of an individual, they quickly enough pass into the adult stage, that is, the cycle begins anew. Nevertheless, personal hygiene will help to escape from parasites.
Symptoms of Enterobiosis
Persons infected with helminths (what pinworm eggs look like, the photo below shows) the following symptoms:
- diarrhea or constipation;
- dry mouth
- frequent urge to defecate;
- sleep disturbance;
- tearfulness;
- itching near the anus;
- cramping abdominal pain;
- allergic rashes on the dermis;
- urinary incontinence at night;
- loss of appetite;
- nausea, vomiting;
- possible cramps;
- headache;
- the occurrence of vulvovaginitis in women.
It is not possible to see how pinworm eggs look on the pope because of their microscopic size. With a mild form of the disease, slight itching in the perianal zone lasts up to three days. The resumption of this symptom appears after two to three weeks. This is due to the life cycle of parasites. In the presence of a significant number of pinworms in the intestine, irritation and itching are observed for a long period. One of the most reliable signs, in addition to itching, is the appearance of worms in the feces. Distinguish between primary and secondary manifestations of the disease. Constant scratching of the skin near the anus provokes abrasions and wounds, which are infected and cause various dermatitis, exacerbating the course of the underlying disease. Severe enterobiasis causes dizziness, headache, insomnia, and neurasthenia. The penetration of parasites into the female genital organs provokes vulvovaginitis. In practical medicine, cases of the occurrence of enterobiotic endometritis, appendicitis and irritation of the abdominal cavity are described.
Enterobiosis in a child
Children are most often affected by this disease. His other name is a disease of dirty hands. His parents discover when the baby complains about itching in the anus that occurs at night. Below is a photo of what pinworms look like on a child’s pope. Eggs, eating its contents in the intestine, turn into larvae. Rapidly reaching puberty, worms proliferate actively. Females, moving along the intestines, go out through the anus, where thousands of eggs are laid. It is at this time that the baby manifests symptoms that make it possible to suspect enterobiosis. He begins to comb the area near the anus, acting up. At the same time, wounds and cracks can form in the affected area, and if infection gets into them, inflammation is observed. To confirm the diagnosis, the doctor prescribes scraping for enterobiosis, feces and blood tests. Before collecting biomaterial, hygiene procedures are not recommended. When the disease is confirmed, the whole family is exposed to therapy. Almost every parent is faced with this problem, so it is important to know how pinworms look on the pope.
The eggs (photo in the article) of these parasites are destroyed with the help of medicines. The doctor prescribes the necessary drugs and prescribes courses of treatment. To remove dead helminths from the body, it is recommended to take sorbents and cleansing enemas. It is important to carry out hygiene procedures at each stage of treatment.
Unconventional methods for the treatment of enterobiasis
For children and adults, different folk methods are used. For the first, the following methods have proven themselves well:
- Pour carrots grated on a coarse grater with one liter of cow's milk. Cook the mixture for about 25 minutes after boiling. When chilled, give the baby one glass on an empty stomach for three days.
- Dissolve 20 grams of sea food salt in 250 ml of water and make enemas several times a day.
- Take a sitz bath for 20 minutes with tar soap dissolved in water. After the procedure, wash the baby and change into clean linen. Repeat the manipulation daily for seven days.
The following methods are shown to adults:
- Prepare a mixture of 50 ml of olive oil, onion and sea salt, taken in an amount of 5 grams. Eat it before bedtime with a sufficient volume of water. The course is not less than five days.
- Pickled cabbage brine in the amount of one glass is taken twice a day after the main meal for a week.
- Eat a hundred pumpkin seeds on an empty stomach. Then, after waiting 30 minutes, take a laxative.
- Squeeze the juice from the lemon, add a glass of water and a teaspoon of sea salt into it. Take on an empty stomach no more than three days.
The consequences of enterobiasis
From the presence of pinworm eggs on the body (how the parasites look, described above), the gastrointestinal tract primarily suffers. With the penetration of helminths into the intestines, diarrhea, constipation appear, and pain in the abdomen is tormented. By migrating, worms can penetrate the brain or lungs, causing respiratory diseases. Pinworms cause intoxication and lead to allergic manifestations. Some individuals experience rapid fatigue, depression, chronic fatigue, and depression. The video below demonstrates how pinworms look, the eggs of which cause itching and irritation of the anus. An individual can suffer from enterobiasis for a long time, due to self-infection.
This is due to the fact that the body contains parasites at different stages of development. Thus, when the first symptoms are detected, it is necessary to visit the attending doctor in the near future and undergo a course of treatment.