Clean the home post-treatment Wash all the bedsheets and linen that family members have been sleeping on with hot water, to kill any remaining eggs. Don't forget the favourite teddy or security blanket, and take care not to shake linen when removing bedclothes - you could be spreading infectious eggs into the air.
Keep your child's and your own fingernails short. Change bed linen, towels and underwear daily for several days after treatment. Bedlinen and clothing should be machine-washed in hot water to ensure that all the eggs are killed.
Wash all sheets, bed linen, pyjamas and sleepwear in hot water to kill any pinworm eggs. Clean toilet seats and potties regularly with disinfectant (remember to store the disinfectant out of reach of children). All family members should take the medication, regardless of whether they are experiencing symptoms.
Change and wash underwear, nightwear and, if possible bed linen and towels, every day for a few days. A hot water wash, or the heat of an iron, will kill the eggs.
Pinworm eggs can cling to surfaces, including toys, faucets, bedding and toilet seats, for two weeks. So besides regular cleaning of surfaces, methods to help prevent the spread of pinworm eggs or to prevent reinfection include: Wash in the morning.
Pinworm eggs can also be transferred to the fingers from clothing or bedding, and then spread around the home. Eggs may be inhaled from the air or deposited onto food and swallowed. Pinworms can survive up to two weeks on clothing, bedding or other objects, if kept at room temperature.
Wash all the sheets, blankets, towels, and clothing in the house in hot water. Carefully clean everyone's fingernails (which may hold the worm eggs) and cut them short. Scrub toys, countertops, floors, and other surfaces the infected child has touched. Vacuum carpets.
The life cycle of threadworms
The eggs are too small to see without a microscope, but cause itching around the anus due to accompanying irritating mucus.
Yes, it is normal to see dead threadworms in the persons bowel motions. Depending on the frequency of bathroom visits this can take up to one week. Symptoms of threadworm infection usually disappear within one week of treatment.
Pinworm eggs become infective within a few hours after being deposited on the skin around the anus and can survive for 2 to 3 weeks on clothing, bedding, or other objects.
However, they can cause intense itching around the anus (and the vagina in girls), particularly at night when the female worms are laying eggs. This can disturb sleep. In some cases, you may spot threadworms on your bed clothes or sheets at night, or you may notice them in your stools.
Medicine kills the threadworms, but it does not kill the eggs. Eggs can live for up to 2 weeks outside the body. There are things you can do to stop becoming infected again.
Mebendazole is the active ingredient in COMBANTRIN®-1, which works by killing threadworms - in a single dose*. Mebendazole effectively prevents the worm from absorbing the vital glucose it needs to survive. Without being able to absorb glucose, the worm eventually loses its energy and dies.
A deworming treatment takes only 24 hours!
The dog then no longer has any worms and no longer excretes any contagious worm eggs. He is thus free of worms – but can become infected again at any time by absorbing new worm eggs.
Your puppy will pass worms with their poo after deworming. This happens for up to 3 days after the deworming process. If you do not dispose of the excrement properly, the eggs in the poop can cause reinfection if your pup comes into contact with them.
Deworming is most effective when done on an empty stomach. So if you want the medicine to kill the worms, take it on an empty stomach.
Although medicine takes care of the worm infection, the itching may continue for about a week. So the doctor also might give your child a cream or other medicine to help stop the itching.
Threadworms live about 5-6 weeks in the gut, and then die. However, before they die the female worms lay tiny eggs around the anus. This tends to be at night when you are warm and still in bed.
These worms live in the intestine. The adult female worm crawls out of the infected person's anus at night and lays her eggs in the surrounding skin.
It's also important to wash any bedding and towels to get rid of any eggs, as they can live for up to two weeks outside the body. “Worms like sugar,” says Dr Snell, “so it can also be a good idea to cut back on sugar in your child's diet, too.”
The worms live in the lower intestine, but they come out of the anus over night to lay their eggs in the area between the buttocks, which causes your child's bottom to feel very itchy. It is estimated that one female threadworm can lay up to 16,000 eggs.
This might happen if they put their hands in their mouths or bite their nails after coming into contact with people with worms or with worm-infected dust, toys or bed linen. Once swallowed, the eggs get into children's small intestines, where they hatch and lay more eggs around the anus.
In order to stop the spread of pinworm and possible re-infection, people who are infected should shower every morning to help remove a large amount of the eggs on the skin. Showering is a better method than taking a bath, because showering avoids potentially contaminating the bath water with pinworm eggs.
A person will remain infectious for as long as there are worms laying eggs on the skin around his or her rectum. Pinworm eggs can remain infectious in an indoor environment for two to three weeks. How is a person diagnosed?
Medicine can kill pinworms but not their eggs which can survive outside of the body for up to two weeks. Hand sanitiser is not effective against threadworms or their eggs, the best thing to do is wash hands regularly, scrub under fingernails, and wash clothing and bedsheets on hot cycles regularly.