Ms. Chen's son grinded his teeth at night during this time, and he often complained about being hungry during the day, so Ms. Chen was very worried about whether there was something wrong with her son's health.
So Ms. Chen took her son to a nearby children's hospital for some tests.
"I haven't seen this disease for more than ten years," the doctor said, holding the results of Ms. Chen's son's examination.
Hearing this, Ms. Chen was very anxious and quickly asked the doctor what her son's illness was.
"Don't be too nervous, the child has no other problems, just treat ascariasis now."
The doctor did not sell the stool and told Ms. Chen that her son had roundworms in his stomach, which was based on the conclusion of a stool test, in which roundworm eggs were detected.
1. What is ascariasis?
Ascaris is a parasite that can parasitize the human intestine and grow about 15-40cm after adulthood.
Diseases caused by roundworm parasitism are generally referred to as "ascariasis".
Not only that, but the larvae and adults of roundworms can cause disease, and the health problems caused by different physical qualities will be different.
Generally, after exposure to infected roundworm eggs, the remaining eggs hatch and develop into larvae in the intestine after removing some of the eggs that are killed by stomach acid.
But at this time, the larvae are very restless, burrowing into the intestinal mucosa, and then entering the lungs of the infected person through continuous activity.
In the lungs, roundworm larvae complete the peeling stage and become slightly longer, about 1 mm.
The next step is to travel retrograde along the bronchi to the pharynx, where it is swallowed again into the digestive tract.
Therefore, in the larval stage of roundworms, infected people will also develop the disease, which is usually called "ascariae migransis" in medicine.
Just imagine, a foreign body, even a small foreign body moving in the human body, will inevitably cause an uncomfortable reaction.
What's more, roundworms, although small in their juvenile stage, are alive and are more likely to cause problems than lifeless foreign bodies.
For example, when the larvae of the second-stage roundworm are peeling and developing in the lungs, it may cause damage to the lung tissue.
However, in general, patients with mild symptoms will not have too obvious symptoms, and when the eggs in the stool are removed during the examination, the abnormality can be found to be moderate eosinophilia.
As for people with severe infection, the discomfort is much stronger, often accompanied by abnormal manifestations such as fever, abdominal pain, and muscle and joint pain.
Some people may even be induced to have epilepsy, which can lead to a death risk when a severe seizure is not properly treated.
If roundworm eggs are accidentally infected during pregnancy, roundworms may parasitize into the fetus through the placenta when they grow and develop in the body, so that the fetus carries ascariasis before birth.
However, infants and young children who are still in the babbling stage often have inaccurate descriptions of their condition. Therefore, as parents, we should pay attention to the behavior of our children, and once we find something abnormal, we should detect and treat it early.
As the larvae re-enter the intestine and gradually grow, the infected person enters the adult stage of pathogenesis. As in the larval stage, there are still many people who have no symptoms.
In symptomatic people, abdominal pain can be a common manifestation, with roundworms being expelled during bowel movements.
What's more, it vomits directly, which looks quite scary.
In addition, ascariasis can cause many complications, such as ascariasis pancreatitis, appendicitis, etc.
If there are too many roundworms in the intestines, they may also form clumps of kinks, causing intestinal obstruction in infected people.
As for when ascariasis first appeared, according to the earliest records of ascariasis in the mainland, it can be traced back to about 1800 years ago.
Zhang Zhongjing of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded in the "Jin Kui Yaolu": "The worm is a disease, making people vomit, and the heartache attacks sometimes the worm vomits, when the vomit worm, the sick person is quiet and annoying, this is dirty and cold, disturbing the diaphragm so the annoyance I must be stopped, and the person who has to eat and vomit, and the annoyance, the worm smells and smells of food, and the person should vomit the worm." ”
The "worm" in this refers to the worm. Then it was also mentioned in the "Golden Kui Yaolu" that if you want to treat ascariasis, you can use the "Ume Pill Formula".
It should be noted that among the patients with ascariasis, infants and young children are the majority, and adults may be more resistant, and the infection phenomenon is relatively rare.
Like Ms. Chen's family, they usually eat the same meal, and they don't give their children anything else.
As a result, she had nothing to do with her husband, and her son became infected, because of roundworms in the body, he gradually lost weight, grinding his teeth and other symptoms.
2. How ascariasis is infected
Generally, people infected with roundworms have poor living habits and do not pay attention to hygiene when eating.
"Then my family cooks rice and stir-fries, and the ingredients are all cleaned with running water, why do children still have ascariasis?" Ms. Chan was puzzled.
Not only that, Ms. Chen has always asked her children to wash their hands before and after using the toilet, and she is not allowed to eat unwashed fruits and vegetables, and she thinks that she has been very careful with her children.
In fact, Ms. Chen has done a good job, largely isolating the possibility of the child coming into contact with roundworm eggs.
But there are no absolutes in the world, and the sanitary conditions in the home are done, so it is not necessary that when the child is playing outside, the child is not exposed to the source of infection.
For example, if a child inhales a lot of dust containing roundworm eggs when he is playing outside, he may become infected.
In addition, insects such as flies that enter the home, if they have been exposed to roundworm eggs before, can also become vectors for spreading the source of infection.
In addition, if the public toilet outside is not very clean and has been used by someone who has roundworms in its body, the subsequent users may also become infected.
It can be seen from this that the infection process of ascariasis is not complicated.
Once you are infected and find that you are unwell, you should go to the hospital for examination in time.
If you have already passed stool, or you have vomited roundworms in your mouth, the condition has been identified, and then you can treat it according to the doctor's guidance.
If it is unclear whether it is ascariasis, it is necessary to have some tests first, such as a stool test like Ms. Chen's son, to see if there are roundworm eggs in the stool.
Alternatively, an ultrasound examination may be done, and the bile ducts may be dilated and swimming.
3. Why do you rarely see ascariasis now?
When Ms. Chen was recalling where and when her son was infected, she thought of a trip to her hometown with her son some time ago.
As Ms. Chen, who has followed her parents to settle in the city since she was a child and only occasionally returned to her hometown in the countryside, she has not been back to her hometown since the birth of her son, and her parents have always been by her side.
Now I feel that the child is older, and it is more convenient to take it out, and I don't need to have a big bag, so I decided to go back to my hometown with my parents to worship my ancestors.
"Maybe I was infected when I was in my hometown, the sanitary conditions in my hometown are not very good, the child went out to play at that time, I thought my hometown was very safe, and I didn't notice where he went."
After Ms. Chen finished speaking, she blamed herself again, feeling that her carelessness had caused the child to suffer a crime.
The key is that Ms. Chen herself was never infected when she was a child, so she naturally didn't expect her son to be "hit".
"I always felt that ascariasis was only found in my parents' generation, and now I think that I was lucky to avoid it when I was a child."
In fact, the reason why Ms. Chen has such a perception is largely related to the fact that in the past ten years, the phenomenon of roundworm infection in China has become less and less, which has made the public relax their vigilance against roundworm disease.
The reason for this phenomenon has a lot to do with the change in sanitation and the shaping of health awareness.
In the past, the living conditions were poor, and the common people thought about how to be fed and clothed every day, so they would work hard, and after a tiring day, they didn't have the heart to take care of hygiene and hygiene.
Therefore, it has become a common phenomenon to drink raw water directly and eat unwashed vegetables and fruits directly. Especially after the people around you are doing the same, no one will take the initiative to change.
Even the phrase "if you don't do it cleanly, you won't get sick if you eat it" has been circulated, as if it is a bad style in terms of hygienic conditions.
It is precisely because of the poor hygiene and the lack of cleanliness that almost everyone had roundworms in their stomachs a few decades ago.
In order to get rid of the worms in the stomach, "pagoda sugar" came into being.
After eating it, the roundworms in the stomach will be paralyzed, and will no longer be firmly adsorbed in the intestines, and will be excreted from the body with defecation.
In addition to pagoda sugar, with the gradual improvement of medical strength, the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment of roundworm infection has also increased, and the operation is also very professional for some patients who need surgery for treatment. For this reason, the likelihood of repeated infection with roundworms is reduced.
Coupled with the continuous development of modern agricultural technology, this is in contrast to the previous direct fertilization with animal or human manure.
Fertilization is now more scientific, reducing the probability of vegetables and fruits being contaminated by roundworm eggs. If there is less of a source of infection, the health of the people will be more guaranteed.
Of course, it can make people less and less susceptible to ascariasis, and part of the reason is due to the popularization of health knowledge.
Health claims from society and schools will make the elderly and children with relatively weak health awareness aware of the dangers of ascariasis and learn to take preventive measures.
epilogue
Ascariasis is preventable, which is why in the past ten years, whether children or adults, it is basically rare to see ascariasis, mainly because the preventive measures are done well.
However, prevention is not the same as completely eliminating ascariasis, and it is still possible to be infected, especially in some relatively backward places, where sanitation conditions may still not be in place.
For this reason, if you find that there is something wrong with your body, you should go to the hospital in time.
If ascariasis is detected, treat it according to your doctor's instructions and avoid more serious complications.
Resources:
Al Jazeera-City Letter 2011-12-29 "Ascariasis has quietly "extincted" in recent years, and is it related to excessive pesticides in vegetables? 》
Brilliant Science2021-11-11"A few decades ago, almost everyone had roundworms in their stomachs, why has no one heard of them now? 》
39Health.com2024-04-25How to prevent ascariasis