Tapeworms primarily affect the intestines, but their larval forms can migrate and form cysts in various other organs, including the brain, liver, lungs, heart, and eyes.
Tapeworms infect animals and humans. They live in your intestines and feed off the nutrients you eat. Symptoms can include nausea, weakness, diarrhea and fatigue, or you may not have symptoms. You may see eggs or worm pieces in your poop.
Possible Complications
In rare cases, worms can cause a blockage in the intestine. If pork tapeworm larvae move out of the intestine, they can cause local growths and damage tissues such as the brain, eye, or heart. This condition is called cysticercosis.
A person who comes in contact with the faeces of an infected dog (that is, when eggs from the tapeworm are passed in the faeces) may develop hydatid disease. This is serious and potentially fatal. Infection with tapeworm eggs causes cysts to form in vital organs such as the liver and lungs.
Tapeworm larvae form cysts, mostly in the liver and lungs but they can also affect other organs. In rare but serious situations, tapeworm infections can lead to sepsis if cysts become infected with bacteria.
A tapeworm in the intestines often causes mild symptoms. Moderate to severe symptoms may include stomach pain and diarrhea. Larval cysts can cause serious disease if they are in a person's brain, liver, lungs, heart or eyes.
The most common parasitic infections include:
When tapeworm eggs are ingested, they hatch inside the body. The resulting larval cysts can enter the bloodstream and circulate, becoming lodged in the muscles, eyes and brain. In neurocysticercosis, the prefix “neuro” indicates that tapeworm larvae have reached the tissues of the brain.
Liver flukes are parasites that can infect humans and cause liver and bile duct disease. There are two families of liver flukes that cause disease in humans: Opisthorchiidae (which includes species of Clonorchis and Opisthorchis) and Fasciolidae (which includes species of Fasciola).
If there are symptoms of liver disease, they may include: Yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes, called jaundice. Yellowing of the skin might be harder to see on Black or brown skin. Belly pain and swelling.
Neurocysticercosis is caused by pork tapeworm larvae. Of all the worms that cause brain infections, the pork tapeworm causes by far the most cases of brain infections in the Western Hemisphere. After people eat food contaminated with the tapeworm's eggs, secretions in the stomach cause the eggs to hatch into larvae.
Malaria Parasite (Plasmodium)
Not only a killer parasite, but one of the world's biggest killers, the malaria parasite is responsible for around 600,000 deaths a year.
Eggs are formed in each segment of the worm and are passed in the stool. Sometimes, parts of the worm may also be passed in the stool. The tapeworm absorbs the nutrition from food that the infected person eats. This may lead to vitamin B12 deficiency and anemia.
Infection with T. solium tapeworms can result in human cysticercosis, which can be a very serious disease that can cause seizures and muscle or eye damage.
If pork tapeworm larvae move out of the intestine, they can migrate to other parts of the body and cause damage to the liver, eyes, heart, and brain. These infections can be life-threatening. Seizures are the most common symptom of cysticercosis, the infection caused by the larvae of the pork tapeworm.
Too Much Alcohol
Alcoholic fatty liver, which causes liver inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis), eventual scarring (cirrhosis) and even liver cancer, is a process that begins on as little as four drinks a day for men and two for women. By the time you show symptoms, your liver may be damaged beyond repair.
Some of the most common signs of a parasitic infection include:
Symptoms of all types of liver flukes infections include:
Tapeworms can cause digestive problems including abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, and upset stomach. The most visible symptom of taeniasis is the active passing of proglottids (tapeworm segments) through the anus and in the feces.
Contaminated food contains cysts of the parasite. Your child may have a tapeworm infection and have no symptoms. When a child eats tapeworm cysts in undercooked beef, pork, or fish, the cyst survives the stomach acids and releases the larvae. The parasite grows within the child's bowel to become an adult tapeworm.
Humans become infected with tapeworms when they eat raw or undercooked beef or pork containing infective cysticerci. Once inside humans, Taenia cysticerci migrate to the small intestine and mature to adult tapeworms, which produce segments and eggs that are passed in feces.
Parasites can start eating your red blood cells or lead to loss of blood through the stool, which can cause blood loss and result in iron deficiency anemia. Parasites feed on the blood of the host tissue leading to the loss of iron and protein and a deficiency of red blood cells in the body.
Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, is a disease caused by parasitic worms. More than 200 million people worldwide are infected. Schistosomiasis is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). It is the second most dangerous parasitic disease after malaria.
Parasitic infections trigger neuroinflammation, destabilizing neural homeostasis and contributing to neurological and behavioral disorders. Blood–brain barrier crossing and inflammatory responses are central mechanisms by which parasitic infections impact the nervous system.