The tapeworm or lonely during childhood

Can my child have a tapeworm? Well, it would be weird, very weird, but the answer is yes. Tapeworms are flat worms that are fixed in the small intestine and coexist with the patient without causing any benefit, so they are called parasites. We tell you how to identify the presence of the tapeworm in

Can my child have a tapeworm? Well, it would be weird, very weird, but the answer is yes. Tapeworms are flat worms that are fixed in the small intestine and coexist with the patient without causing any benefit, so they are called parasites.

We tell you how to identify the presence of the tapeworm in children, how it is diagnosed and what the treatment is.

Tapeworm or solitary symptoms in children

The main symptoms that tapeworms cause in children are:

- Abdominal discomfort.

- Tendency to diarrhea.

- Mild anemia.

- Thinning.

Precisely, for this last symptom (thinning), the tapeworm más is better known as the 'lone worm', or simply the 'solitary'. And is that at the beginning of S. XX cysticerci (larvae) were sold to lose weight, without diet or exercise. Since it is not a remedy, but a disease that can present complications, such a commercial aberration was maintained for a few years. However, in our days we still discover some cases of adolescents and adults who, voluntarily, decide to share their food with this 'magical' and dangerous slimming worm that can measure between 3 and 4 meters. How the child is infected with a tapeworm and what is the treatment

The main mechanism of infection

is through the ingestion of larvae from beef or pork that has not passed the mandatory controls by veterinarians, and also It has been little cooked. In the case of beef we will be infested by the so-called Taenia solium, while if the contaminated meat is pork we will be infested by the Taenia saginata. By the way, there is no erratum, we are infected by viruses and bacteria, but we are infested by parasites. That is the correct terminology. The usual thing is that the human being acts as a definitive host, that is, what we have commented so far: he ingests the larva and

the worm develops in the small intestine. However, with tapeworms there is the peculiarity that we can also act as an intermediate host. The adult worm eliminates eggs in the feces of the infested person or animal. If we are not careful and do not wash our hands well, in the strange case that we coexisted with a person infested with a tapeworm, we could ingest these eggs, which would lodge in the muscles and instead of developing an adult worm they would give rise to the larvae or cysticerci. In this way, the life cycle of the parasite would be closed. Larvae, in addition to the muscles,

can also be hosted in the brain . Over the years they grow little by little until they occupy an important space within the brain, giving rise to convulsions. This situation is known as neurocysticercosis and is very rare in Europe and North America, butquite common in Latin America hasta, to the point that pediatricians say that 'an afebrile seizure in a healthy child, coming from South America, and no history of epilepsy, is a neurocysticercosis until proven otherwise. ' As usual, everything is treated and the infestedare cured after taking antiparasitic medicines.

However, you have to watch what you eat, wash your hands well before and after eating food and, above all, ignore charlatans who sell magic slimming pills. To lose weight, it is best to exercise and not bite between meals. Other recipes, you can get frog (or worm).