Parasitizing in the body round and flat worms are the cause of helminthic diseases, including trichinosis - human symptoms are not expressed explicitly. The carrier of infection may not even know that it is attacked by worms. The longer the parasite remains undetected, the harder the disease progresses. In some cases, it comes to a lethal outcome.
Infection of a person with trichinosis
The causative agent of the disease is a tiny nematode worm, spiral, thin, almost filiform, reaching a length of 0.5-4 mm. Trichinella are found in domestic animals (cats, dogs, pigs), wild (boars, foxes, wolves), rodents, marine mammals. Predation or the use of carrion causes the parasites to get out of the body into the body. Penetrate orally, through the esophagus. The larva is released from the capsule, is introduced into the mucosa (intestine, stomach), grows in the connective tissue, and already on the 3rd-4th day produces a new offspring.
The source of human infection with trichinosis can be poorly cooked meat, which contains the worm larvae:
- Pork (including lard and wild boar);
- seal;
- meat of nutria and other animals;
- doggie.
Trichinosis - symptoms
When the trichinella parasite settles in the body, the symptoms in a person do not immediately manifest. They are felt as the growth, development of the worm and its movement in the body. Adult individuals mate in the small intestine, producing new portions of larvae. After a week and a half after infection, the helminths begin to make their way along the bloodstream. Spreading throughout the body, they become the causes of various pathologies. The severity and intensity of the symptoms depends on how many parasites get into the body and how strong the immune system is.
Trichinella - life cycle
The cycle of trichinella development completely passes inside one organism without exiting to the outside. Man is simultaneously an intermediate and final master. As a rule, it is at the end of the food chain, while other mammalian meat is used for food. The signs of the disease depend on the stage of development of the trichinella, the symptoms are divided into periods:
- The stage of penetration (invasion). Symptoms are expressed in a stool disorder. Diarrhea alternates with constipation, appetite decreases, nausea, pain in the abdomen. Possible fever and skin rash.
- The stage of migration. Helminthes move in tissues and vessels. Appears edema near the eyelids, sensitivity to light, eye muscles become inflamed. The dream is broken, the person feels a breakdown. Because of the work of the breathing system there is a cough. The body temperature rises.
- At the last stage, the larvae settle in the muscles, creating a capsule around them. Symptoms subsided, and the former condition resembles only swelling around the eyes. Blood tests during this period will show that the content of eosinophils is increased.
Typical symptoms - eyelid edema and chymosis, fever, myalgia - are a consequence of allergy to helminth antigens. They can not be detected in the first days or even weeks of infection, but they can survive for many years, remaining in the human body. After encapsulating the larvae and removing them from the organs, it is problematic to observe parasites. Basically, the patient feels muscle pain, fatigue.
Trichinella - affected organs
Trichinella worms in humans can affect all organs and systems. Larvae deposited in the host's body do not sit in one place, but move. They hit the site behind the site, forming foci of inflammation. The clinical picture of the disease manifests itself depending on which organ has attacked trichinosis, the symptoms that appear in humans will indicate this. There may be shortness of breath if worms get into the lungs, pain in the abdomen - if in the intestines. Also from parasites suffer:
- heart (the muscular layer of its wall);
- intercostal, chewing, deltoid, ocular muscles;
- liver;
- central nervous system;
- brain.
Trichinosis - complications
A severe form of the disease can cause complications, up to a lethal outcome (10-35%), when immunopathological reactions develop, pneumonia, myocarditis , meningoencephalitis develops. In other cases, the prognosis is favorable, although trichinosis in humans gives side effects, affecting the airways, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Among the possible complications, such diseases as:
- hepatitis;
- thrombophlebitis;
- OCH;
- glomerulonephritis ;
- vasculitis (systemic).
Trichinosis - Diagnosis
A diverse clinical picture, similarity with other pathologies (poisoning, nephritis, laryngitis, etc.) complicate the diagnosis. In order to be confirmed trichinosis, the symptoms of a person should manifest themselves. The main signs are fever, muscle pain, swelling, which last from 4 weeks to several months. Suspicion of the presence in the body of a biochelmintic Trichinella spiral is a carefully collected history. For example, if the patient reported that he recently ate wild animal meat. Other research methods:
- a general blood test ;
- an allergic test;
- precipitation reactions;
- microscopic examination of muscles.
Trichinosis analysis
Trichinella in the blood can be detected after biopsy and laboratory tests. This can be done at an early stage, although there are no special analyzes to identify parasites in the intestine. Already on the third day of the disease, there is a steady increase in the blood of eosinophils - hypereosinophilia. In combination with a fever, it is typical for a disease. After 3 weeks, an analysis can be made for the detection of Trichinella antigen. If the parasite is recognized, it is important to warn the epidemiologist. It is advisable to conduct a study of meat for trichinosis (which was used for food).
Treatment of trichinosis in humans
If the diagnosis of trichinosis is confirmed, treatment should begin immediately. To withdraw adult worms from the digestive system is not difficult - for this standard antihelminthic drugs are used. But larvae in capsules are hard to reach for any therapeutic substances. When the trichinella enters the body, the treatment includes drugs for symptom relief:
- anti-inflammatory;
- antipyretic;
- for the protection of the liver and other organs.
With severe damage to the muscles, the patients are immobilized, and in order to return them to their normal state, they perform massage sessions and physiotherapy courses.
Symptomatic treatment involves taking:
- analgesics for the removal of muscle pain;
- sorbents , counteracting intoxication;
- antihistamines;
- laxative in the early period;
- anthelmintic preparations for intestinal parasite forms ( Nemozol , Mintezol);
- vitamins.
Prophylaxis of trichinosis
To prevent disease trichinosis, a person should monitor his nutrition and feeding of pets. Do not allow pigs, dogs and cats to eat meat from infected rodents. Unchecked food is recommended to be excluded from the diet completely, and meat, getting on the table, subjected to thorough heat treatment. The larvae of the parasite die at a temperature above 70 degrees and freeze (below -17 degrees with a prolonged stay in the cold - 3 weeks).
How to test meat for trichinosis
Externally, a piece of carcass containing parasites does not differ from normal, considering that the concentration of larvae is 200 per 1 g. The express test for trichinosis is carried out in the laboratory using a microscope. The meat that has been processed is marked with a stigma. Regular prevention is also carried out on a large scale: Rospotrebnadzor monitors the status of products in places of active sales (markets, stores). But it's impossible to trace the quality of the meat or divorced cattle.
Trichinosis - meat disinfection
You can not remove the larvae that get into tissues and muscles. Discovered trichinosis in meat causes the carcass to be burned entirely - it's not customary to risk health of people. In factories, the contaminated product can not be re-processed and does not enter stew. As a preventive measure - if there is no confidence in the contamination of meat - it should be cooked or fried for a long time, cut into small pieces.
No matter how dangerous trichinosis is, the symptoms of a person sooner or later will point to the development of the disease. You can not ignore the manifested signs of ailment. It is important to carefully monitor the meat consumed, especially if it is owned by a dead wild animal or bought in a spontaneously established market (that is, it does not have a stigma guaranteeing the absence of parasites).