Eating pork and rice, how do worms attack the body?

Diseases from the mouth, caused by raw vegetables and undercooked pork

Pork tapeworm/cysticercosis (pork tapeworm) is divided into two types: pork tapeworm larvae and adult tapeworms. According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 55 provinces and cities that have recorded this disease.

Professor Nguyen Van Kinh, Director of the Tropical Diseases Hospital, said that the cause of tapeworm/pork tapeworm larvae is mainly related to eating habits due to infection with larvae in soil, in water (eating aquatic vegetables, raw vegetables that are not washed or cooked) or infection from uncooked meat products.

Eating undercooked pork is one of the causes of tapeworm/pork tapeworm infection.

In cases where the patient has adult worms in the intestine, when the old segments fall off, the segments may be regurgitated into the stomach due to the reaction of intestinal peristalsis, which is similar to eating new segments, so the number of larvae will be very large.

The larvae travel through the blood to the muscles, eyes or brain of humans and will form cysts. Depending on the location of the cyst, there are different manifestations.

If the cyst is in the muscle, there will be small, firm tumors, about 1 - 2 cm in size or the size of a bean or peanut, easily mobile, not itchy, not painful, located in the skeletal muscle, not on the path of the lymph nodes.

With adult worms, the cause of infection is usually due to the patient eating raw or undercooked pork containing tapeworm cysts (rice pigs).

Pork tapeworm sample at the Institute of Malaria - Parasitology - Entomology, Ho Chi Minh City.

When reaching the stomach, the tapeworm larvae will escape the cyst and adhere to the small intestine and develop into adult tapeworms. Adult tapeworms develop gradually by budding, producing new segments from the neck, creating thousands of new tapeworm segments, each segment has about 50,000 eggs, extending the length of the adult tapeworm from 2-12 meters, they parasitize in the small intestine for many years.

Symptoms of tapeworm infection

Adult tapeworms often have no obvious symptoms. Some cases have clinical manifestations such as abdominal pain, digestive disorders or neurological symptoms (weakness).

In cases with many worms, the worm segments can be seen coming out in the stool or crawling out of the anus (often seen in underwear when changed at the end of the working day); worm segments appear in the stool (small, flat, ivory-white segments like jackfruit fiber, flat worm head).

Complications of tapeworm disease

In general, when worms enter the body, they take up food, leading to poor absorption, slowing physical development, and causing digestive disorders.

However, Dr. Nguyen Quang Thieu, Deputy Director of the Central Institute of Malaria - Parasitology - Entomology, said that people infected with pork tapeworm larvae must undergo CT scans and MRI scans to detect lesions.

Pork tapeworm larvae nest in the brain.

The most dangerous thing about pork tapeworm larvae is when they attack the brain and heart, causing serious health effects and possibly leaving complications. In the case of eye worms, they can cause glaucoma, vision loss or blindness.

In general, diseases caused by tapeworms and pork tapeworm larvae are usually benign, the lesions can heal on their own within 2-3 months, but there are also cases of death due to larvae attacking the central nervous system but this is rare.

Treatment for a few weeks is cured.

Mr. Thieu said that there are currently two types of tests to determine whether a person is infected with pork tapeworm: antibodies and antigens. However, both of these tests cannot determine the time of infection.

Currently, the Ministry of Health has a very effective treatment regimen for tapeworms. Professor Nguyen Van Kinh said that for adult tapeworms, you only need to take medicine for 1 day to be cured. For tapeworm larvae, treatment is longer, usually 2 weeks but can last 4-5 times, each time 21 days.

Currently, the treatment regimen for pork tapeworm is only applied at district level hospitals and above. Therefore, people should not buy medicine for use on their own, nor should they treat it with oriental medicine, traditional medicine or traditional medicine because it can easily cause dangerous complications.

When suspected of infection, people need to go to specialized medical facilities for early examination and treatment. Doctors will have specific treatment instructions and patients must be monitored throughout the treatment process.

How to prevent tapeworm and pork tapeworm larvae

The Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health recommends that to proactively prevent tapeworm and pork tapeworm larvae, people need to change their eating habits.

In particular, do not eat raw foods such as pork, fermented pork rolls, rare pork (risk of adult tapeworm infection), do not eat unsanitary raw vegetables (risk of pork tapeworm larvae disease), do not drink raw water.

Manage fresh manure, especially in areas where people are infected with adult pork tapeworms in the intestine; use hygienic latrines; do not raise free-range pigs.

People with adult intestinal worms must be treated and must not defecate indiscriminately. Strictly manage hygiene standards in pig slaughterhouses.

Cases need to be detected and treated early and the removed worms, especially pork tapeworms, should be removed to prevent contracting cysticercosis by autoinfection.