Tapeworm disease

　　The prevalence of this disease is mainly related to the way pigs are raised and the living habits of residents. Due to residents defecating everywhere, the simplicity of toilets, or pigsties being connected to human toilets, pigs can eat the feces of patients and become infected; the free-range raising of pigs increases the chance of infection. Human infection is directly related to the dietary habits of residents. Residents in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces have the habit of eating raw pork, such as burning off the hair of the pig with fire, cutting the meat into slices, and dipping it in sauce to eat, thus leading to a higher infection rate. In most parts of China, residents often become infected due to eating large pieces of meat that are not fully cooked, or food with meat filling that is not steamed long enough, or uneven heating when stir-frying slices of meat, which causes the cysticercus in the meat to not be killed completely. Therefore, controlling the temperature and time of cooking is very important for preventing infection. Using a knife or chopping board that has been used to cut raw meat to cut cooked food can also lead to infection due to contamination of the cysticercus.

　　Occasionally, symptoms such as papilledema and optic atrophy may occur. When the cysticercus dies, it can cause vitreous opacity, retinal detachment, optic atrophy, and complications such as cataracts, secondary glaucoma, ultimately leading to eye atrophy and blindness. Common complications include cysticercosis. If a person ingests pork tapeworm eggs, they can also develop into cysticerci in the human body, leading to cysticercosis (see Pork Cysticercosis).

　　In the early stage of tapeworm disease, adult tapeworms reside in the intestines, affecting the intestinal Qi movement, causing subtle pain in the abdomen or upper abdomen, abdominal distension, and even nausea and vomiting. White nodules are often found in underwear, bedding, or feces, or accompanied by anal itching. With the progression of the disease, the spleen and stomach function is damaged, unable to transform the essence of water and grain, and tapeworms consume nutrients, leading to insufficient source of transformation in the human body, insufficient Qi and blood, and hence, symptoms such as a pale or yellowish complexion, emaciation, fatigue, lack of appetite, pale tongue, and thin pulse are common.

　　Strengthen meat inspection, do not sell pork with meatbloom or beef with cysts, do not eat undercooked pork and beef, and thoroughly treat tapeworm patients. Manage feces, strengthen the management of pigs and cattle, and prevent livestock from being infected with tapeworms.

　　1. Treat patients. Timely deworming treatment should be provided to patients based on the general survey.

　　2. Manage toilets and pig pens. Mobilize the masses to manage toilets and build pig pens, and control the mutual infection between humans and animals.

　　3. Pay attention to personal hygiene. It is necessary to vigorously publicize the dangers of the disease, eliminate bad habits, avoid eating raw meat, wash hands before meals and after defecation to prevent accidental ingestion of tapeworm eggs. Cooking must ensure that the meat is well-cooked. The cysticercus in the meat can be killed in 5 minutes at 54°C. Separate knives and chopping boards for raw and cooked meat.

　　4. Strengthen meat inspection and improve the hygiene of meat products in urban and rural areas. Pay special attention to the inspection of meat sold by individual vendors in the agricultural and sideline products market. Before supplying to the market, meat must undergo strict inspection and treatment. Pork can be killed completely by the cysticercus after 12 hours at -12 to -13°C.

　　In the prevention and control efforts, leadership should be strengthened, and close cooperation should be achieved among agricultural, pastoral, health, and commercial departments. The implementation of comprehensive measures should be rigorously enforced to ensure effective prevention and control.

　　1. Inquire about medical history:The patient may experience a subtle pain in the abdomen or upper abdomen, abdominal distension, and even nausea and vomiting. White nodules are often found in underwear, bedding, or feces, or accompanied by anal itching. With the progression of the disease, the spleen and stomach function is damaged, unable to transform the essence of water and grain, and tapeworms consume nutrients, leading to insufficient source of transformation in the human body, insufficient Qi and blood, and hence, symptoms such as a pale or yellowish complexion, emaciation, fatigue, lack of appetite, pale tongue, and thin pulse are common.

　　2, Anal swab test or transparent adhesive tape method test

　　3, Routine blood examination

　　Tapeworm disease food therapy recipes

　　1, Take 30 grams of persimmon peel and 120 grams of areca nuts, decocted, take all at once on an empty stomach in the morning, and then take 15 grams of niter or 6 grams of rhubarb one hour later, to expel tapeworms.

　　2, Take half a coconut to one coconut each time, first drink the coconut milk, then eat the coconut meat, finish eating on an empty stomach in the morning, and eat again after three hours. The effect of expelling Hymenolepis nana and tapeworms is similar to that of areca nuts, and there are no side effects.

　　3, Treatment of ascariasis, schistosomiasis, and tapeworm disease: fresh pumpkin seed kernels 50 grams, ground into paste, mixed with water to make a milk preparation, add rock sugar or honey, take on an empty stomach. Or dry and grind pumpkin seeds, take 30 grams each time, twice a day, mixed with sugar and boiling water. Treatment of schistosomiasis is taken for 15 days as one course.

　　4, Two hundred pumpkin seeds (up to 150 grams), dried and eaten raw or roasted, can expel tapeworms. If worms are not excreted, eat two or three more. Take 50 grams of pumpkin seeds, crushed and mixed with sugar water, do not eat greasy food the next day after taking it, which can expel tapeworms; take 120 grams of pumpkin seeds on an empty stomach in the morning, two hours later, take 60 grams of areca nuts decocted in warm water, and then take 15 grams of niter one hour later, which can also expel tapeworms.

　　5, Unripe papaya, dried and ground into powder, take 10 grams each time, on an empty stomach in the morning, to expel tapeworms and roundworms.

　　What foods should be avoided in tapeworm disease

　　Do not eat 'rice pork', do not eat raw meat or undercooked meat.

　　1, Areca nuts and pumpkin seeds used together. Areca nuts have a strong paralytic effect on pork tapeworms, causing the entire worm to become paralyzed. For beef tapeworms, it only paralyzes the scolex and immature segments, so the efficacy is poor. Pumpkin seeds can paralyze the pregnant segment of beef tapeworms, and the efficacy is also poor when used alone. The cure rate is higher when used in combination with areca nuts to treat beef tapeworms. Both drugs are used together in the treatment of tapeworm disease. In the morning on an empty stomach, take 60 to 120 grams of pumpkin seed powder, and take the decoction of areca nuts (60-90 grams, decocted for 1 hour) two hours later, and then take a laxative half an hour later. Generally, a complete and active worm is excreted within 3 hours. A few patients may excrete worms in the afternoon or the next day.

　　2, Wumingling (Chloroquine) Chloroquine was originally a drug used to kill snails, but it also has a good therapeutic effect on pork and beef tapeworms. It is also used in clinical treatment of tapeworm infection, and its antitapeworm effect is superior to that of areca nuts and pumpkin seeds. This drug can inhibit the oxidative phosphorylation reaction of tapeworm mitochondria, thereby killing its scolex and neck, and the dead worms are excreted with feces. The dosage is to take 1 gram on an empty stomach first, then take another 1 gram after 1 hour, chew the tablet thoroughly and swallow it, and drink less water to make the drug reach a higher concentration in the upper duodenum. Laxatives should be taken two hours later. The dosage for children is halved. This drug has few side effects, but since it has no effect on eggs, when the worms are digested in the intestines and eggs are released, the eggs can flow back into the stomach and duodenum. Pork tapeworms can cause cysticercosis due to this. Therefore, it is recommended that when treating pork tapeworm infection, antivomiting drugs should be taken first to prevent vomiting, and laxatives should be taken to quickly excrete the dead segments before they are digested. This medicine should be taken for two days in a row.

　　3. Praziquantel is a new broad-spectrum antihelminthic drug, which has both antischistosomal effects and is also an effective antitapeworm drug. The mechanism of action of praziquantel in killing tapeworms has not yet been elucidated, and it may promote the entry of Ca2+ into the worm body, causing the worm body to contract, producing spastic paralysis. The adult dose is 0.5 grams, and the pediatric dose is 0.2-0.3g taken in a single dose. A laxative should be taken 1 hour later, with good effects.

　　4. Astragalus root bud powder 30-50 grams should be taken without the need for a laxative. It can also be used with grass bud extract, astragalus acid monomer, or astragalus acid coarse crystal tablets, but magnesium sulfate as a laxative should be taken.

　　5. Fenbendazole for adults is 200mg twice a day, taken for 3 consecutive days, with an approximately 80% tapeworm expulsion rate.

　　6. Albendazole has good efficacy against tapeworms, with a dose of 400mg per day for 6 consecutive days.

　　No matter what type of anthelmintic is used, the following points should be noted: (1) After anthelmintic treatment, all feces should be retained for 24 hours for washing and checking the head segment to determine the efficacy. If the head segment is found, it indicates successful treatment; if the head segment is not found, it does not mean that the anthelmintic treatment has failed, because the head segment may not be excreted on the day of treatment, and the anthelmintic drug may cause the segment to break or deform and be difficult to recognize. (2) When treating Taeniasis solium, antivertigo medicine should be taken first to prevent the eggs from refluxing into the stomach, entering the small intestine, hatching into hexacanth, entering the intestinal wall blood vessels, distributing throughout the body with blood, and developing into cysticercosis, forming subcutaneous and muscular cysticercosis, brain cysticercosis, eye cysticercosis, and so on. (3) After treatment, observe for 3 months; if there are again segments or eggs excreted, re-treatment should be carried out.