Pinworms in adults: symptoms, treatment and how to remove them

Pinworms are the most famous and common parasites that infect the human intestines. When these nematodes multiply, a disease called enterobiasis occurs. Children are the most vulnerable to pinworm infection, and the level of infection among preschool children, according to various sources, is 25-90%. Infection of surrounding people with pinworm eggs occurs through contact and household contact, so adults whose children are infected with nematodes (most often these are children attending preschool institutions) also have pinworms. Treatment of pinworms in adults is similar to that of children, using the same anthelmintic drugs or traditional methods. The symptoms of pinworms in adults and the treatment of enterobiasis will be discussed in this article.

How can you get infected?

Enterobiasis carriers are children or adults who are infected with pinworms. Infection occurs from person to person through a handshake, through household items, door handles, clothes, all those objects that the patient touched, if you do not wash your hands after contact and eat food with dirty hands. Pinworm eggs can also come into contact with food from flies and cockroaches, or be found on the fur of pets.

The female pinworm enters the human intestine orally, through dirty hands that receive worm eggs. Next, she mates with a male representative and then migrates to the human large intestine, where she receives nutrition, and after 4 weeks she moves to the rectum, where at night she crawls to the anus and lays up to 15 thousand eggs on the skin near the anus.

The child or adult then experiences itching in the anus, and scratching the itchy area allows pinworm eggs to land on the patient’s hands and under the nails. Further, the mechanism of self-infection and infection of others is clear. If you have overgrown long nails, do not wash your hands after combing, after using the toilet, before eating, thousands of eggs settle on everything that an infected person touches. This contributes to the further spread of nematodes, getting from under nails, beds, and underwear onto the hands of other children and adults.

Recommendations and advice for treatment and prevention

• If nausea occurs during enterobiasis, especially after taking the medicine, you can drink lightly salted water. To do this, just dilute 100 ml of boiled water with 1 teaspoon of salt.
• Do not eat foods high in carbohydrates and sugar; if you eat such foods, pinworms begin to multiply even faster.
• Eat foods high in fiber more often - apples, watermelons, raisins, or bran, for example. All of them help remove toxins and parasites from the body.
• It has been proven that pinworms cannot tolerate thyme and cayenne pepper; if you use these seasonings as often as possible, the effectiveness of treatment will only increase.

Remember that during the course of treatment it is important to observe the rules of personal hygiene for all family members. Additionally, it is necessary to wash underwear and bed linen every day, and then iron them on both sides to destroy parasite eggs.

You can get rid of pinworms using folk remedies, but ideally, as mentioned above, supplement them with medications to be sure of the effectiveness of the treatment.

To minimize the risk of infection with enterobiasis, follow simple rules and teach them to your family, especially young children:

1. Wash your hands as often as possible, especially before you eat.
2. Carefully monitor your health, if any signs of enterobiasis appear, immediately consult a doctor for an accurate diagnosis.
3. Drink only boiled water and make sure that all foods are washed well.
4. It is advisable to completely get rid of insects in the house; install mosquito nets on windows, ventilation shafts, etc. Remember, even ants can carry parasite eggs, not to mention flies and cockroaches.
5. Never leave dishes or food items out in the open air to allow dust to settle on them.

Life cycle of a parasite

Once ingested, pinworm eggs enter the small intestine. The temperature and humidity in this part of the intestine are optimal for the development of the parasite from an egg into a mature individual. This process takes 2 - 4 weeks. Next, the parasites move into the large intestine and attach to the inner walls. The lifespan of a pinworm is 1-2 months. Fertilization occurs in the large intestine.

The fertilized female crawls out of the rectum at night and lays 5,000 to 15,000 eggs in the anal area and perineum, after which she dies. Humidity and temperature in the perianal folds are optimal for the development of parasites, and after 4-6 hours they become ready to penetrate the human body. Thanks to the double-circuit shell, pinworm eggs are stable in the external environment and can remain invasive for 30 days.

What are pinworms?

The disease caused by pinworms during reproduction is called enterobiasis. Pinworms are divided into two types: Enterobius vermicularis (lives in the human intestine) and E. Anthropopitheci (in the body of chimpanzees). There is also a third species, which differs from the previous two in the size of the spicule. According to the ICD10 code, enterobiasis is classified as B80.

Worms often live in countries with a humid and warm climate. Pinworms parasitize the lower parts of the small intestine and large intestine of humans.

Pinworms are a type of parasite - roundworms of the nematode family. The worms look like a thin white thread, their ends are pointed, which gives them the name “pinworm.” They are white in color. Worms are bisexual. The size of the female exceeds the size of the male.

When helminth eggs enter the mouth and further into the digestive tract, the life cycle of the worms begins. Having reached the lower region of the small intestine, larvae are released from the eggs, which go through the maturation stage and begin to reproduce. After mating, the males die and are excreted along with the feces. Females continue their cycle, located in the upper part of the large intestine. After bearing the eggs, the female lays eggs in the folds of the anus (this is a feature of pinworms).

To lay eggs, the female emerges partially from the anus at night and lays about 13,000 eggs. After this, when the clutch is laid, the female dies. And clutches of eggs can end up on the toilet rim, bedding, clothing, toys and other household items and can continue to live there for up to three weeks.

During the laying of pinworm eggs, a person may experience itching, and the eggs may end up under the nails, and if a person does not wash their hands, the eggs enter the oral cavity, and a new life cycle of helminths begins.

To maintain viability, eggs need a moist and warm environment - this can be reservoirs, sewers, the surface of plants, they also survive on the fur of animals. The death of pinworms is possible at high temperatures, in the absence of moisture, but they tolerate frost well (they remain viable at minus 8 for about 18 hours).

Symptoms

In adults, pinworm symptoms may appear approximately 2 weeks after infection:

• itching around the anus, usually observed at night, but with severe infection it can bother you at any time of the day;
• in women, itching sometimes spreads to the perineum, with a large number of parasites in the intestines;
• after scratching, inflammatory processes may occur;
• there are periodic pains in the intestines;
• sometimes there is loosening of the stool, the presence of mucus;
• irritability and insomnia appear;
• allergic reactions occur.

In advanced cases, scratching leads to infection with bacteria, which leads to purulent inflammation of the skin; the person’s condition can significantly worsen, the temperature rises and paraproctitis develops. Also, prolonged infection without treatment leads to intoxication of the body, exhaustion, fatigue, and irritability. In women, when pinworms introduce pathogenic microorganisms into the genitals, endometritis and vulvovaginitis can develop. Some people develop a helminthic infestation, which causes a decrease in hemoglobin levels.

By the way, if you are wondering how to remove pinworms from adults, self-infection can be avoided if you perform daily intimate hygiene, change your underwear regularly, and wash your hands before and after each meal and visit to the toilet. This is explained by the fact that the life cycle of pinworms is only a few weeks, after which they die. If the colony is not replenished, the disease goes away.

What complications can pinworms cause?

It is believed that pinworms are harmless and will go away on their own. In general, it is possible to get rid of pinworms in the body without treatment if you follow the rules of hygiene, but this is very difficult to do.

If enterobiasis is present for several months, severe complications are possible, especially in children. As for adults, various pathologies can also arise here. For example, most women with enterobiasis may experience serious inflammatory diseases of the genitourinary system. We list only some of the diseases that pinworms cause:

• Infectious diseases of the genitourinary system, most often affecting women. Diseases can reach the point that in the future a woman will not be able to give birth.
• Inflammation of appendicitis, if present, because pinworms can accumulate in this part of the intestine and cause suppuration.
• Inflammation of the intestines and, as a result, enterocolitis with all organ disorders.
• Peritonitis, if pinworms manage to damage the intestinal walls and enter the abdominal cavity, which can cause death.
• Severe skin irritation can lead to pinworms causing a person to scratch the skin, introducing dirt and infections into the wounds.

Diagnostics

To establish a diagnosis of enterobiasis, several diagnostic methods are used:

1. Identify key symptoms: itching at night, loss of appetite, weakness.
2. Analysis of stool for pinworm eggs. This method is not informative enough. Therefore, other methods are additionally used.
3. Scraping in the anal sphincter area. To do this, scrape off the contents of the area near the anus with a cotton swab.
4. Imprint of the anal sphincter area. This method uses adhesive tape, which is glued to this area, then glue the tape onto glass and look under a microscope.

Tests should be done at least 2 times for a more accurate result, with an interval of 2 weeks.

Photo: what pinworms look like

Pinworms are small roundworms. The photo shows that their size is 2-5 mm (males) and 9-12 mm (females). They are shaped like thin white sticks with pointed ends. Parasites live mainly in the large intestine, sometimes entering the final sections of the small intestine.

Adult females crawl out of the anus to lay eggs. It is there that the optimal environment for ripening is a temperature of about 37 ° C and high humidity. The eggs become infective after 4-6 hours. This process causes the main symptom of the disease – itching.

Is it possible to take tablets against pinworms for prevention?

To prevent infection, you can take a prophylactic course of anthelmintics.

It is important to consider here that therapy should only be carried out if infection is suspected and always in compliance with the prophylactic dosage. Before taking any medications, it is better to consult your doctor.

Anthelmintics are quite toxic. Since the parasites themselves poison the body, the pills can cause many side effects. Prevention is usually accompanied by taking sorbents or using cleansing enemas.

The best preventive measures against pinworms are:

• Pyrantel;
• Piperazine;
• Dekaris;
• Mebendazole;
• Wormil;
• Zentel.

Pyrantel tablets and suspensions

After taking a prophylactic dose, you must undergo an examination at a medical facility. If necessary, treatment is repeated two weeks after the first course - this is necessary to eliminate the possibility of relapse.

How to treat pinworms - choose the best drugs

Popular anthelmintic drugs for the treatment of pinworms in adults include 4 low-toxic drugs:

1. Pirantel. A product with a high safety profile. If necessary, it can be prescribed to children and pregnant women. The essence of the action is a disruption of neuromuscular transmission in the parasite’s body, which leads to its paralysis. The worm loses its ability to adhere to the intestinal walls, enters the feces and is expelled through natural peristalsis. The medicine is distributed in tablet form and syrup. Dose – 10 mg/kg body weight. The course of treatment is one-time.
2. Albendazole. The mechanism of action is as follows: the helminth becomes paralyzed, loses the ability to maintain itself in the intestines, dies from hunger due to the loss of the ability to consume food and is excreted. The effect is due to the cessation of beta-tubulin polymerization and glucose utilization by the cells of the helminth’s body. In adults, pinworms disappear after a single dose of 400 mg of the drug. When treating pediatric patients, dose adjustment is required.
3. Levamisole. The effect is similar to the drug Pirantel. The helminth loses the ability to move, becomes paralyzed and is excreted from the intestines along with feces within 24 hours. Prescribed 150 mg, once.
4. Mebendazole (Vermox). Another representative of the group of fast-acting anthelmintics. The effect occurs after a single dose of 100 mg of the drug. The mechanism is no different from that of Albendazole and Levamisole. Sharing of laxatives is not required.

In practice, Pirantel is more often prescribed for the treatment of enterobiasis at home. Other medications described are no less effective, however, their safety profile is inferior to this drug in terms of strength and frequency of side effects. Levamisole is used when the patient has an immunodeficiency of non-infectious origin. In addition to anthelmintic, the medicine has an immunostimulating effect.

Features of taking tablets for adults for worms

Pinworms in adults. Therapy of enterobiasis, like any other parasitic disease, is within the competence of an infectious disease specialist or a parasitologist. To determine the type of worms, the doctor will write the patient a referral for testing. Only after a high-quality diagnosis can you choose tablets for pinworms or other parasites that will actually give the desired effect.

Under no circumstances should you engage in self-treatment or purchase medications for worms without appropriate prescriptions, since they all have a toxic effect. Moreover, incorrect calculation of the dose, or violation of the frequency of dosing of medications significantly increases the risk of side effects and complications of therapy.

Medicines for worms for adults are available in several forms: tablets; suspensions; candles; drops. Adult patients are most often prescribed tablet forms of drugs. The liquid form is more suitable for treating children.

Tablets are convenient because they have a standard dosage. This makes it easy to calculate the required amount of medication that needs to be taken to get rid of parasites. The course of treatment for enterobiasis can vary from 1 to 3 days. After two weeks, the course must be repeated again, which will ensure a lasting effect from the therapy.

Nutrition

To increase the anthelmintic effect of medications and folk remedies, it is recommended to reduce the load on the digestive system as much as possible. To do this, follow a light diet. It is recommended to exclude sweet and flour products, fried and fatty foods from the diet. You can eat dairy products and drink freshly squeezed juices.

It is allowed to eat porridge and light soups with a small amount of potatoes. It should be remembered that following a diet during treatment for pinworms enhances therapy and improves the general well-being of the patient.

How to eat for worms in adults

Pinworms in adults. To increase the effectiveness of drug therapy, reduce the load on the gastrointestinal tract (gastrointestinal tract), and stabilize the intestinal microflora, doctors recommend switching to dietary nutrition during treatment.

The basis of the diet should be fermented milk products, fresh herbs, nuts, and low-fat broths. It is better to eat fractionally, in small portions. For drinks, you should give preference to sour, freshly squeezed natural juices, special herbal decoctions or medicinal teas.

Not recommended on the menu: flour or confectionery products, sweet pastries; fried or fatty foods; vegetables with a high percentage of starch; bananas; sweet grape varieties; potato; pasta; alcohol.

Folk remedies

You can get rid of pinworms not only with the help of traditional pharmaceuticals. Many people have long trusted products of natural origin. When used wisely, they can help with parasitic infections without producing toxic effects, like "chemistry".

Vegetables and seeds for the treatment of enterobiasis:

1. Pumpkin seeds. If pinworms are found in adults, treatment at home must include pumpkin seeds. This tasty, satisfying, and, most importantly, effective medicine will help you quickly get rid of helminths. In order for pumpkin seeds to have a proper effect on pinworms, you need to eat at least 300 grams of seeds in one day.
2. Seeds of watermelon. The seeds should be ground into powder. The resulting medicine should be added to a glass of water, 3 tablespoons each. and mix thoroughly. Take the drink for seven days, in the morning, one glass.
3. Beet. The juice is prepared immediately before consumption. It is enough to squeeze 100 ml of red beet juice. It is drunk twice a day, morning and evening.
4. Carrot. For treatment, use freshly squeezed juice (half a glass). To enhance the effect, add a few drops of vegetable oil. The juice is drunk in the morning, before meals.

Herbs to get rid of pinworms:

1. Wormwood. A tablespoon of raw material is poured with boiling water (500 ml), left to cool. Take one teaspoon three times a day before meals.
2. Oak and valerian. Valerian root and oak bark, taken in equal parts, are crushed, and the resulting raw material, in the amount of 1 tbsp. l., pour boiling water (250 ml). Leave for at least three hours. The drug is taken in the morning on an empty stomach. After one or two hours, eat a clove of garlic and drink three tablespoons of vegetable oil. The course of treatment is ten days.
3. Tansy, wormwood and chamomile. The raw materials are mixed in equal parts, take 1 tablespoon of the mixture, pour a glass of boiling water and leave. The infusion is drunk twice a day for five days.

Other means:

1. Some plant oils: pumpkin, hemp, flaxseed are excellent at fighting parasites. The oil should be drunk in the morning, on an empty stomach, in the amount of 1-2 tbsp. l.
2. A recipe called “drunk worms” has gained particular popularity. To combat pinworms, you need to drink 50 ml of cognac in the morning on an empty stomach, wash it down with very sweet tea, and twenty minutes later drink 50 ml of castor oil. Please note that castor oil has a pronounced laxative effect, so you must stay at home on the day of the procedure.
3. The anal area can be lubricated with zinc ointment. This drug has a viscous and sticky structure. The pinworms will simply stick to the ointment and will not be able to lay eggs.
4. Vaseline ointment with essential oils can become an obstacle to egg laying. To prepare the product, you need to add two drops of tea tree, thyme and lavender oils to the Vaseline. Mix everything thoroughly and apply the ointment to the anus every evening.

What is the fastest way to treat?

Of course, the fastest way to get rid of worms is with the help of tablets. You only need to take the medicine twice, leaving a break of several days between doses. However, we must not forget that this is a very aggressive treatment that can lead to undesirable health consequences. In addition, all deworming tablets have a large number of contraindications, so it is very important that the drug and its dosage are prescribed by a competent doctor.

You must understand that if one family member is diagnosed with pinworms, all family members must undergo treatment. It is very easy to become infected with enterobiasis at home; the incubation period is 2 weeks.

As for nutrition during the treatment of helminthiasis, the following foods should be excluded from the diet:

• sugar and products containing it;
• porridge – rice and wheat;
• sausages, pates;
• pasta and pastries.

Pinworms occur with equal frequency in adults and children. If enterobiasis is not treated in a timely manner, helminthic infestations will deplete the body, significantly reduce the body's protective functions, and this will negatively affect the functioning of all organs and systems. Therefore, you need to start treating the pathology as early as possible and carry it out very carefully.

Prevention

If one of your family members has pinworms, you should take some preventive measures while taking special anthelmintic drugs or decoctions. Compliance with them will provide maximum protection from helminth infection.

The main ones:

1. Wash your hands very often. Before and after meals, after each visit to the toilet and immediately after close contact with the patient;
2. Take a shower every morning. Since females usually lay eggs late in the evening or at night, thorough watering in the morning will help eliminate a significant proportion of the eggs;
3. Change underwear twice a day, on which parasite eggs may potentially remain;
4. Replace bedding daily, especially sheets. Washing should be done in hot water using powders or detergents. For additional disinfection, it is recommended to iron washed clothes;
5. Wash the toilet lid as often as possible using disinfectants;
6. To prevent worsening of the disease and the development of secondary infections, do not scratch itchy skin. It is better to endure until the itching goes away on its own.

If helminth infection does occur, do not panic. From the widest range of medicines you can choose the best option. The main thing is to strictly follow the instructions for the pharmaceutical drug or strictly follow the recipe if preference is given to traditional medicine.

Treatment methods for enterobiasis

Treatment of enterobiasis is carried out by pediatricians, and in adult patients - by gastroenterologists.

For treatment success, it is important that all family members are treated at the same time. Careful personal hygiene is also necessary. When treating children, parents need to pay special attention to the child’s hygiene.

Anthelmintics

Anthelmintic drugs are used in the treatment of enterobiasis.

Make an appointment Do not self-medicate. Contact our specialists who will correctly diagnose and prescribe treatment.

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Bottom line

Enterobiasis cannot be classified as a severe helminthic infestation. Parasites are relatively small in size, and the intoxication of the body as a result of their vital activity is average. But we cannot take this problem lightly.

Advanced forms of enterobiasis are severe and cause complications (intestinal bleeding, bacterial inflammation of the tissues of the perianal area, indigestion and dysbacteriosis). The biggest problem is the rapid spread of the disease and the difficulties of laboratory diagnosis. The appearance of even slight itching in the anus, which intensifies at night, requires immediate consultation with a doctor to rule out pinworm infection.

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Spreading

Central routes of infection if enterobiasis is diagnosed:

• oral
• everyday
• contact

Everyday infection is possible in cases where parents and children do not adhere to hygiene laws, which is influenced by the children's habit of not washing their hands before eating.

It is even easier to get sick by neglecting to wash fruits and vegetables. Children are often infected through toys with pinworm worms.

Oral infection in any case means that worms or helminthic eggs are transported into the body through the opening of the mouth. When scratching the anus, children accidentally pick up pinworm eggs directly into their nails. After which they are transferred from there not only to the oral and nasal cavities, but also to common food.

The contact method of infection is possible at those random moments when a person picks up parasites from carriers, infected people and animals. Animals transport protected pinworms on their fur.