Toxocara - symptoms, treatment

Toxocarosis is a disease caused by infection of the body with toxocara - worms, similar to ascarids. There are two main types of toxocars: cat and dog. In the human body, which is not a natural habitat for a given parasite, toxocara comes exclusively from infected animals (from wool, from faeces). It is impossible to infect it from another person.

Symptoms of Toksokara

When toxocar injury, depending on the prevailing symptoms, distinguish four different forms of the disease:

  1. Cutaneous form. It manifests itself in the form of allergic reactions on the skin, redness, swelling, up to eczema.
  2. Visceral form. Develops when the body is damaged by a large number of larvae. Depending on the severity of the lesion, the following symptoms can occur: fever, pulmonary syndrome ( dry cough , night coughing attacks, dyspnea, cyanosis), enlargement of the liver, abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, diarrhea, enlarged lymph nodes.
  3. Neurological form. Occurs when parasites enter the brain. It manifests itself in the form of neurological disorders and behavioral changes (hyperactivity, violation of attention, etc.).
  4. Eye toxocariasis. It is accompanied by inflammation of the inner membranes of the eye and vitreous body, develops slowly enough and affects only one eye more often. In addition to inflammatory processes, it can provoke a decrease in vision and strabismus.

As can be seen, there are no specific signs of toxocardic lesions, which often makes diagnosis difficult and leads to the treatment of common symptoms, rather than the disease itself.

Toksokara - diagnostics

Unlike most other helminthic invasions, toxocar eggs in human feces are not diagnosed, since parasites in the human body do not reach this stage of development. A directly parasitic diagnosis can be established with a biopsy if there are granulomas or larvae in the tissues, which is extremely rare.

When performing analyzes, one of the main indicators indicating the presence of toxocara is considered to be increased level of eosinophils and leukocytes in the blood.

Treatment with toxocarp

To date, all the methods of treating toxocarosis in humans are not perfect.

Applied anthelmintic drugs ( Vermox , Mintezol, Ditrazin citrate, Albendazole) are effective against migratory larvae, but weakly affect adult parasites in organs and tissues.

With the ocular form of the disease, injections of depomedrol into the area under the eyes are applied, and in addition, methods of laser coagulation.