Modern medicine does not approve of the tactics of total prevention of helminthiases. Experts from the World Health Organization recommend prophylactic administration of anthelmintic drugs only in endemic areas, which include most of Africa, India, the Middle East, and some countries in South America. In these zones, the prevalence of helminth infections in the population is more than 20%.
In Russia, the situation with helminthic infestations is quite calm. In general, it should be said that the vast majority of helminths “prefer” a warm and humid climate. The further north you go, the lower their prevalence, and the lower the incidence of helminthiasis. Therefore, neither children nor adult Russians today are recommended to carry out drug prevention of these diseases. It would be more correct to watch the child. If his appetite has worsened, his body weight has decreased, he has abdominal pain or night itching in the anal area, be sure to consult a doctor.
Medicines for worms are so toxic, I don’t want to burden the body. Can you buy dietary supplements, they are natural and also help?
However, it is worth understanding that there is and cannot be any guarantee of cure for helminthiases after taking supplements. In cases where helminthic infestation is diagnosed, medications that contain anthelmintic active ingredients are needed. Only they ensure the death of helminths and complete recovery in most cases.
In addition, not only dietary supplements are made from plant materials - the same tansy (its flowers) is an officially registered medicine.
The doctor prescribed me albendazole. But there is a cheaper product in pharmacies; I used to often buy it for my cat - it helps a lot. So why pay more?
One of the most accessible anthelmintic drugs that are widely used in veterinary medicine is piperazine adipate. This is really quite a powerful drug. According to the instructions for use, its effectiveness even with a single dose is 90–95%, and with repeated use it reaches 100%. Piperazine adipate has a paralyzing effect on helminths, disrupting the function of their neuromuscular system. The drug has been used in medicine since the 50s of the last century, but today it has almost been replaced by modern means. The reason was a number of disadvantages inherent in piperazine. Firstly, it only works against two invasions - ascariasis and enterobiasis (pinworm infection). Secondly, its safety profile leaves much to be desired - taking the drug may be accompanied by side effects, including abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, headache and others. Today there are anthelmintics that are much better tolerated, and albendazole is one of them.
Do you have any antihelminthic teas or herbs?
Tansy flowers and pumpkin seeds have antihelminthic properties. However, they act very selectively. For example, tansy flowers exhibit a complex choleretic and anthelmintic effect against enterobiasis and ascariasis. And pumpkin seeds are active against tapeworms - bovine tapeworm, pork tapeworm and some others. In addition, medicinal herbs are definitely inferior in activity to synthetic drugs, although they are much less toxic. To be sure of the result of treatment, you should not rely on the effectiveness of self-medication with herbs and consult a doctor who will prescribe modern anthelmintic medications. If you still want to take herbal medicines, you can take them as an addition to the main treatment, that is, synthetic anthelmintic drugs.
The doctor prescribed albendazole for the child and added that he could take some antiallergic medications. I don't know if they are needed.
If a child suffers from diseases of an allergic nature, for example, atopic dermatitis, bronchial asthma, then when treated with anthelmintic drugs, the risk of exacerbation increases. Therefore, antihistamines such as loratadine, cetirizine and others are often prescribed in combination with them. Drugs in this group can be started 3-5 days before starting treatment with anthelmintic drugs. They are not canceled while taking anthelmintic drugs, as well as for 5 days after the end of therapy.
However, not all experts believe that treatment of helminthiases must be accompanied by taking antiallergic drugs. Thus, Western doctors do not recommend taking antihistamines, believing that this is not necessary.
I read that during treatment for worms you need to drink sorbents. This is true?
Sorbents are used in three stages - 3–5 days before the start of the main treatment, while taking anthelmintic drugs, and 5 days after the end of anthelmintic therapy. At the same time, it is important to remember the need to strictly follow the recommendations for the time of taking sorbents: they should be used no less than an hour before or an hour after eating or taking other medications.
It is also worth noting that in the West, sorbents are not prescribed for the treatment of helminthiasis.
The child already took medication for worms six months ago, and now the doctor prescribed it again. Won't it get used to?
How to find out whether the medicine for worms helped or not?
The effectiveness of modern anthelmintic drugs is so high that many doctors prefer not to even conduct control diagnostic studies. For the most common helminthiasis - infection with pinworms and roundworms - taking synthetic anthelmintic drugs allows for successful cure in almost 100% of patients. Your task is to prevent re-infection. To do this, you need to carry out sanitary and hygienic measures: often change underwear and bed linen, observe the rules of personal hygiene, wash children's toys with warm water and soap if helminthiasis is detected in a child.
The doctor prescribed only one tablet of medicine for worms, but I read that they are taken several times. Will the worms die from just one pill?
The treatment regimen for helminth infections depends on the type of helminths that are detected and on the drug prescribed by the doctor. For example, for ascariasis, albendazole is prescribed once, and mebendazole can be used for three days in a row. But when infected with other common helminths - pinworms - albendazole is used at least twice with a difference of 2 weeks. Other regimens for taking anthelmintic drugs are also known. We recommend that you trust your doctor, who will select a course taking into account all factors and prescribe the optimal treatment regimen.
After a holiday spent with his grandmother in the village, the child lost his appetite and began complaining of abdominal pain. Tests for worms showed nothing, but the nurse in the laboratory said that it was difficult to detect them, so it was better to drink something prophylactically. Please advise me something.
It is very important to make a correct diagnosis, and this should be done by your doctor. As for the difficulties of diagnosis, they actually exist, especially when infected with pinworms. It is believed that the probability of detecting them during initial research is 50%. But with three consecutive studies it already reaches 90%. If you carry out the analysis 5 times in a row, the probability of identifying pinworms will increase to 99%. Of course, such multiple examinations are quite difficult for both the parent and the child. But this is much safer than taking anthelmintic drugs without an established diagnosis. We remind you that all of them are prescription drugs and can only be prescribed by a doctor.
I heard that deworming medications are generally poorly tolerated. This is true?
Anthelmintic medications can actually cause adverse reactions. Admission may be accompanied by abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, weakness and other side effects. This is why the World Health Organization recommends prescribing these medications only after diagnosis, when the need for them is obvious. There is no alternative to synthetic anthelmintics - only they are almost 100% likely to cure the disease. Therefore, if the doctor prescribed an anthelmintic drug, you need to take it. I would like to add that the drugs in this group for most invasions (ascariasis, enterobiasis) are prescribed in low doses, so they are usually well tolerated, and the benefits of taking them many times exceed the risk of side effects. The main thing is to follow the doctor's recommendations.
Sources
- Intestinal worms. Strategy. URL: http://www.who.int/intestinal_worms/strategy/en/ (accessed November 20, 2018).
- Instructions for use of the drug piperazine adipate.
- Korneva V.V. et al. Evaluation of the effectiveness of enterosorbent atoxyl in the complex treatment of ascariasis in children // Modern. Pediatrics, 2011. T. 3. No. 37. P. 1–4.
- Helminthiases in children // Magazine “Child's Health”, 2006. T. 2. P. 2.
- Yulish E. I. Clinic, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of helminthiasis in children // News of medicine and pharmacy, 2011. No. 11–12. pp. 371–372.
- Nelson textbook of pediatrics. Edition 20 / Robert M. Kliegman et al. - Elsevier, 2016. - 3888 p.
- Legesse M., Erko B., Medhin G. Efficacy of alebendazole and mebendazole in the treatment of Ascaris and Trichuris infections //Ethiopian medical journal. 2002; 40 (4): 335–343.
Don't let your guard down
Red caviar is terrible
As explained in Rospotrebnadzor in Moscow, helminths can also be contracted from fish, from red salted, so appetizing-looking caviar. You probably won’t find a person who wouldn’t want to treat himself to fresh fish. Especially with its current abundance in the markets. But we must keep in mind that not all fish products end up in the market after being tested by veterinarians.
“Some species of fish can serve as sources of human infection with helminthic infestations such as diphyllobothriasis and anisakiasis,” warn sanitary doctors. — Most fish consumers have never even heard of many of them. Diphyllobothriasis, for example, is caused when a person is infected with a broad tapeworm or Klebanovsky's tapeworm. The tapeworm is a large worm and reaches a length of 8-10 meters, sometimes up to 25 meters. An adult tapeworm can settle not only in the small intestine of a person, but also in the stomach of a cat, dog, or pig. If you experience characteristic signs of infection with these worms: nausea, weakness, abdominal pain, headaches, dizziness, you should immediately consult a doctor. Pass the necessary tests.”
Another complex and unknown word to most is anisakidosis - a disease that poorly salted herring can give a person. This disease in humans was first diagnosed in Holland in 1985 and was associated precisely with the consumption of lightly salted herring. To date, thousands of cases have been reported in Europe, North and South America and Southeast Asia. Human infection occurs when eating raw or half-raw infected sea fish and seafood, “five-minute” caviar, lightly salted, lightly marinated fish. Today, the risk of contracting anisacidosis has increased due to the growing popularity of exotic oriental dishes made from raw seafood, such as “sushi”, “he”, “satsimi” and others. Ingested with seafood, live anisakid larvae actively penetrate the stomach or intestinal mucosa. The period from the moment of consumption of the contaminated product until the appearance of the first signs of the disease is from 1 hour to 2 weeks.
In order to prevent human infection, seafood must be monitored for contamination with anisakid larvae. But who does it? Anisakid larvae die quickly and completely if the fish is well boiled or fried - at a temperature of +60°C and above they die within 10 minutes. Therefore, smoked and raw fish of marine origin that has not been subjected to such processing does not guarantee its disinfection from anisakid larvae. And tapeworm can hide in dried, poorly fried or raw fish.
“Surprise” from the sandbox
BY THE WAY
Signs of the presence of worms in a child’s body: drooling, nausea, decreased appetite or pathological increase in appetite, cramping pain around the navel, upset bowel movements, increased fatigue, hyperactivity, headaches, dizziness, pale skin, circles under the eyes, increased excitability in the evening, causeless whims, poor sleep, grinding of teeth, itching in the perineal area, allergic reactions.
Sanitary doctors advise
1. Maintain hygiene, wash your hands often.
2. Wash fruits and vegetables well, no matter where they came from: from the market or from the store.
5. During the summer, take care of yourself while on vacation, especially when traveling to exotic countries.
Folk remedies
HELP "MK"
Roundworms: roundworms 15-40 cm long; live in the small intestines. Ascaris eggs are excreted along with feces from the human intestine and develop in the soil. They are most often infected through soil and unwashed vegetables.
Pinworms: small worms 3-12 mm long; live in the small and large intestines. Pinworm infection occurs when helminth eggs are ingested and enter the mouth and nose with dust. Self-infection with pinworms can occur through dirty hands and food.
Whipworms: thin worms 30-35 mm long; live in the cecum and large intestine. Infection with whipworms occurs in the same way as infection with roundworms.
Trichinella:(Trichina) very small worms up to 4 mm long. A person becomes infected with them by eating the meat of pigs, or less often wild animals, which contain trichina larvae.
Bull tapeworm:(all tapeworms are often called tapeworms) has a length of 4-10 m; a person becomes infected by eating undercooked or undercooked meat from cattle that contains larvae. Housewives often become infected by tasting raw minced meat.
Wide tape: up to 6-15 m long; a person becomes infected by eating poorly cooked or fried river fish.
Dwarf tapeworm: 3-5 cm long. Infection occurs through contaminated household items that contain worm eggs, door handles, and toilet seats. Children get sick more often.
Echinococcus: lives in the intestines of animals, most often dogs. People become infected from dogs and cats. Echinococcosis is a serious disease, the symptoms of which depend on which organ is affected.
Giardia: has a pear shape, length 10-20 microns. Lives in the human intestine, mainly in the duodenum, less often in the bile duct and gallbladder, causing giardiasis.
The expression “kill a worm” has been familiar to each of us since childhood. This verbiage is used to mean to satisfy hunger, to have a light snack before the main meal. It turns out that the creature hiding under the mask of an unknown worm is not so gluttonous, but why does it need to be starved, and not appeased or appeased?
The Spanish caterpillar and the French beast are siblings of our worm
In many European languages there is a similar concept, but it refers exclusively to drinks taken on an empty stomach. The Spanish say matar el gusanillo, the Portuguese say matar o bicho, the French say tuer le ver. Literally translated, it sounds like “kill the caterpillar” and “destroy the beast.” There is clearly a direct connection here with our idiom “to kill the worm.” The meaning of the phraseological unit becomes more understandable, since the verb in its composition is synonymous with such concepts as “torture”, “lime”, “destroy”, “put to death”.
An insidious monster in the heart of a dead lady
In France, among regulars of drinking establishments who prefer to sit at the bar in the morning, a story passed off as the pure truth is popular. They say that once in a Parisian family a young woman suddenly died. Having opened the body of the deceased, doctors discovered a huge worm unknown to science in her heart. All attempts to kill it were unsuccessful; the animal turned out to be surprisingly tenacious.
In Russian, unlike French or Spanish, the expression “to kill a worm” is synonymous with a light snack without drinking alcohol. According to some researchers, the idiom could have arisen under the influence of popular beliefs. At a time when people knew very little about the anatomical features of the human body, it was believed that there was a snake inside the stomach that needed to be constantly fed.
Rumbling in an empty stomach was associated with the monster's dissatisfaction. If its need for food is not satisfied in time, it could eat a person from the inside - it is no coincidence that during long breaks in food it began to suck in the pit of the stomach. It is quite possible that this idea of the structure of internal organs became the starting point for the emergence of the expression “killing a worm.” The meaning of the phraseological unit subsequently acquired a soft ironic connotation, and the formidable asp “turned” into a small harmless booger.
Speech borrowings and confusion of concepts
All the proposed versions look quite plausible, if you do not take into account the fact that the phrase “to kill a worm” appeared in the Russian language only in the 19th century. Until this time, this phrase had not been found in Russian literature. Therefore, there is no need to talk about the ancient Slavic roots of the idiom. One can also question the assertion that the birthplace of phraseological units is medieval Europe. To remove helminths, according to historical information, it was not alcohol that was used, but saturated solutions of table salt.
Having migrated from the Mediterranean countries to France and Germany, the phrase “kill a worm” somewhat lost its original meaning and began to be identified not with treatment, but with drinking alcohol with a light snack. With the same meaning, the phraseological unit penetrated into Russia. But in the Russian language there already existed the expression “to kill howl”, that is, “to eat”, “to satisfy hunger”. Over time, these phrases merged into one, and the alcoholic connotation was completely lost.
1
Since ancient times, Russia has treated beautiful figures of speech and colorful sayings with great reverence. However, over time, outdated proverbs fall out of use, and today only classical literature reminds of them. Today we will talk about one of these funny phraseological units, this Kill the worm, you can find out the meaning a little later. To ensure that our useful resource is always at hand, be sure to add it to your bookmarks. We regularly publish new information on our website.
However, before continuing, I would like to advise you to read a couple of other useful publications on the topic of sayings and proverbs. For example, what does it mean: My head is spinning; how to translate Mercy side; which means both the reader, and the reaper, and the player on the pipe; meaning of the expression And there is a hole in the old woman, etc.
So let's continue What does it mean to kill a worm?? This expression has several meanings, we will analyze only the most popular of them.
Kill the worm- means to satisfy your hunger a little, to have a light snack
Origin Kill the worm
Option one. In the Middle Ages, Europe had terrible unsanitary conditions, and many citizens had a huge number of diseases associated with uncleanliness and lack of hygiene. The most common occurrence was worms, which were present in almost every individual despite their devout service to democratic principles. There was an opinion among aristocrats that you could get rid of helminths by drinking strong wine or cognac on an empty stomach. As a result, the French expression " tuer le ver“, which can literally be translated as “kill a worm.” It’s difficult to say how effective this treatment was, but you have an excellent opportunity to check this, because helminth eggs are sold to girls who want to lose weight. By breeding these “creatures” in their stomachs, you can begin to remove them using various alcoholic drinks.Second version. Russian peasants were an uneducated people, and they assumed that a huge worm had settled in their stomach and was constantly making sounds. There was a strong belief that it needed to be fed, and then this creature would calm down. This version is similar to the truth, although some points still raise doubts.
After reading this interesting article, you learned Kill the worm meaning
Having a little snack and drowning out, satisfying the feeling of hunger - this means “starving a worm”, we use such a humorous expression to denote our needs, namely to eat something.
But what worm are we trying to kill and why do we say exactly that?
There are several explanations for the origin of this expression.
In the 18th century this expression is not yet found, but starting from the 19th century it begins to be actively used.
It is believed that the meaning of the expression “how to eat” is equivalent to the meaning of “drink”, and the expression itself came from the Romance groups of languages: Italian, French, Portuguese.
There is a saying in Italian that translates as “to kill the caterpillar” (matar el gusanillo) and meant taking a glass of alcohol before breakfast.
And in French the saying “to kill a worm” (tuer le ver) is nothing more than drinking on an empty stomach.
- Apparently, because a person always has a snack after drinking, and his appetite is no joke.
- And in Rus' the word “worm” is generally consonant with the word “belly” (belly, belly).
Let's take a look at these pages as well