Infectious disease doctor: Mass blood testing for pork tapeworm is unnecessary

Associate Professor Do Duy Cuong, Director of the Tropical Disease Center, Bach Mai Hospital, said that the rush of Bac Ninh residents to take their children to get their blood tested for pork tapeworm is unnecessary.

Mr. Cuong explained that the current blood screening test only detects antibodies and antigens of pork tapeworm larvae in the serum, which is meaningless for healthy children without symptoms. If the result is positive for tapeworms, it only confirms that the child has been exposed to tapeworm eggs by eating water or raw vegetables containing tapeworm eggs, not by eating pork containing larvae (rice pigs).

People who eat undercooked pork containing tapeworm cysts (rice pork), when reaching the stomach, the tapeworm larvae will escape the cyst and adhere to the small intestine and develop intoadult tapewormTo confirm that eating pork and rice causes adult tapeworm disease, a stool sample must be taken for testing to see if adult tapeworm segments are found. If tapeworm segments are found, it can be confirmed that the patient has adult tapeworm disease, not a disease caused by larval infection.

People at risk or with symptoms such as epilepsy, unexplained vision problems, digestive disorders, absorption disorders, patients suspected of having brain tapeworm larvae, the appearance of subcutaneous nodules... should be tested for it.tapeworm larvae, even have to do many other tests to confirm such as ultrasound, CT scan, biopsy...

According to Mr. Cuong, a positive blood test for tapeworm is not enough to confirm whether there is a larval disease or not and doctors only treat when there are symptoms, otherwise they just monitor. In addition, there is a positive cross-reactivity rate between pork tapeworm and some other types of parasites.

"In the case of children in Bac Ninh, if they have no symptoms, meaning they were only exposed to the disease, there is no need for treatment," said Mr. Cuong.

Sharing the same opinion, Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, Children's Hospital 1, said that worms are present in abundance in the environment, in soil, in unclean vegetables, in animal feces and saliva. Food hygiene and environmental hygiene are very important, but it is difficult to avoid worm infection.

According to Dr. Khanh, most of the time when worms enter the human body, after a while the body will naturally eliminate them, but the test is still positive. Therefore, sometimes the test is positive but in fact there are no worms in the body, no worms left. Worm tests are very easy to mistake because this worm infection has been gone for a long time but another worm is tested. Human worm infection but the test shows dog, cat, pig worms.

"Only patients with signs of parasites appearing on the skin (rashes, lumps on the skin), signs in the brain such as convulsions, coma, limb weakness... and the treating doctor suspects that the parasites 'ran the wrong way' to the brain, skin, eyes... will order the test. Children or adults without any symptoms do not need to be tested," said Dr. Khanh.

Dr. Khanh emphasized, allWhen worms enter the body, they have an incubation period., the body will create antibodies, you cannot eat today and get sick tomorrow. There are some types of worms that can only be tested several months after eating.

Doctors recommend deworming every 3 to 6 months, and getting into the habit of eating cooked food and drinking boiled water, and using safe food. If you suspect that you have eaten something that may be infected with worms, give your child deworming medicine, and don't worry about running around to get tested. For worms, you should use albendazole, mebendazole, or pyrentel; for pork tapeworm infection, you should use praziquantel or albendazole.

In recent days, many children in Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province have been taken by their families to the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology and the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases to be diagnosed with cysticercosis. Doctors are actively examining and diagnosing symptoms, assessing causes, epidemiological factors, history of consumption of contaminated foods, performing tests and conducting analyses to make a diagnosis.

Diagnosing whether a person has cysticercosis or not depends on many factors because a positive ELISA antibody test may be due to previous infection.

To determine the source of transmission, transmission route... it is necessary to have careful, clear, accurate epidemiological investigations and assessments to ensure objectivity based on scientific evidence.

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, pork tapeworm larvae will die when cooked at 75 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes or boiled for 2 minutes. Therefore, eating cooked food and not eating raw vegetables will prevent infection with pork tapeworm.

In recent days, nearly 2,000 parents in Bac Ninh have taken their children to Hanoi to be tested for tapeworms, after the Thanh Khuong kindergarten kitchen was discovered to be using dirty meat. By the evening of March 17, 209 children had tested positive for tapeworms. On March 18, samples were taken from students at 19 kindergartens in Bac Ninh and sent to Hanoi for testing.