For most people, treatment will involve taking a single dose of a medication called mebendazole to kill the worms. If necessary, another dose can be taken after 2 weeks. During treatment and for a few weeks afterwards, it's also important to follow strict hygiene measures to avoid spreading the threadworm eggs.
Pay attention to kids' hygiene
Wash your hands regularly to avoid picking up the infection yourself, and encourage children to do the same, especially after using the toilet or playing outside. It also helps if fingernails are kept short and clean – longer nails can provide a great hiding place for the infection.
Threadworm is spread when children scratch their bottom, causing the eggs to collect under the fingernails. The child then carries the worm eggs back to their mouth with their hands. The eggs can also be spread indirectly, in food, dust, or other items. The eggs can survive up to two weeks outside the body.
Scratching may make the anus sore. Large numbers of threadworms may possibly cause mild abdominal (tummy) pains, and make a child irritable. Very rarely, threadworms can cause other problems.
Symptoms of threadworm infection usually disappear within one week of treatment. Threadworms are highly contagious. Hygiene measures should be followed for 6 weeks.
The worms die after about six weeks. Provided that you do not swallow any new eggs, no new worms will grow to replace them. So, if you continue the hygiene measures described above for six weeks, this should break the cycle of re-infection, and clear your gut of threadworms.
Threadworms do not go away by themselves, and people do not build up immunity to them, so they must be treated in order to eradicate them totally from the body.
Medications kill only the adult worms and have no effect on developing eggs and larvae. The prescription of choice is mebendazole* and the non-prescription medication of choice is pyrantel pamoate. Both mebendazole and pyrantel pamoate are given as a single dose and repeated in 2 weeks to kill any newly ingested eggs.
A person is infected with pinworms by ingesting pinworm eggs either directly or indirectly. These eggs are deposited around the anus by the worm and can be carried to common surfaces such as hands, toys, bedding, clothing, and toilet seats.
Threadworms usually produce no symptoms except an itchy bottom. In fact, people may harbour them for years without realising it.
Usually the medicine is taken as a single dose. Your doctor may advise you to take another dose 2 weeks later. It is best if your child showers on the night they take the medicine and again the next morning, to remove eggs laid during the night.
Threadworms are common but are not usually serious. Threadworms infect the gut and lay eggs around your anus which causes itch. Treatment usually includes medication plus hygiene measures. Medication kills the worms, but not their eggs, which can survive for two weeks.
You or your child can get threadworms by accidently swallowing worm eggs found on contaminated surfaces. This can happen by scratching the anal region and then touching your mouth or food.
The medications used for the treatment of pinworm are either mebendazole, pyrantel pamoate, or albendazole. Any of these drugs are given in one dose initially, and then another single dose of the same drug two weeks later. Pyrantel pamoate is available without prescription.
How is the infection treated? Threadworm treatment is fairly straightforward. Your doctor will usually prescribe a medication called mebendazole - available in liquid or tablet form - and a single dose should clear the problem.
The female adult worms leave the anus in the middle of the night while the person is sleeping to deposit her eggs around the skin of the perianal region. The eggs become infectious within a couple of hours after being deposited and can survive for about 2 weeks outside the host. Many people may be asymptomatic.
It moves. If it doesn't wiggle, it's probably lint or a thread. The worm may be seen around the anus or on the child's bottom. It is especially active at night or early morning.
British researchers have identified a protein that exists in some people's gut mucus that seems to be toxic to parasitic worms. Those with the protein are able to ward off infection, while those who lack the protein are more easily infected with the parasites, researchers said.
You can get infected by: touching objects or surfaces with worm eggs on them – if someone with worms does not wash their hands. touching soil or swallowing water or food with worm eggs in it – mainly a risk in parts of the world without modern toilets or sewage systems.
Pinworm infection is spread by the fecal-oral route, that is by the transfer of infective pinworm eggs from the anus to someone's mouth, either directly by hand or indirectly through contaminated clothing, bedding, food, or other articles.
Promptly wash used bed linen, all clothing, towels and washcloths in hot water with detergent. Vacuum carpets and floors well. Wash the canister or change the vacuum cleaner's bag after each use. Seal the bag before throwing it away.
Pinworm eggs become infective within a few hours after being deposited on the skin around the anus and can survive on objects for 2 to 3 weeks.