Canine fluke infection: What you need to know

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Canine tapeworm infection is an infection caused by a tapeworm parasite of the genus Echinococcus, called Toxocara canis. Toxicosis is common in children from 3 to 10 years old and rarely causes disease in adults.

1. The development cycle in the human body of the dog fluke

When dogs are infected with tapeworms, after parasites and eggs will be developed and released into the environment through the dog's defecation process. In addition, a dog's anus is a place that contains a lot of eggs, when dogs lick their anus and then lick their bodies, lick our living things, they accidentally spread these eggs everywhere.
Especially when eating raw vegetables or petting dogs, contacting objects with eggs of fluke, when entering the human body, if not phagocytosed, after 5 months the eggs develop into cysts.

The cyst contains 2 million tapeworm heads. Once the cyst is broken, it will release millions of young fluke heads in the blood, which are parasitic everywhere in the body such as lungs, liver, spleen, and brain.

2. How do people with tapeworms show symptoms?

When the tapeworm invades and parasitizes the body, the cyst will compress the surrounding organs and organs and cause dangerous complications. The damage and harm depend on the location of the parasitic cyst.
When the cysts are broken, they will cause the body to be poisoned, allergic, anaphylactic, and spilled out to form secondary cysts. Secondary cysts may appear 2 to 5 years after primary cyst rupture and are often fatal at this stage.

3. Diagnosis of tapeworms in humans

Current techniques are blood tests for anti-toxocara antibodies. If it is positive, it means that you have been infected with this worm at some point in your life, it does not say whether that worm is still alive in your body or not..
After eating this worm, antibodies will appear about 2 weeks later ... And last for a very long time, it is still possible to detect antibodies after 2.8 years by ELISA technique, 5 years by WESTERN-BLOT technique even when children the worms have died or been expelled long ago.
That means if you test it is very likely to be positive. If you have clinical manifestations such as persistent urticaria, eye problems, liver or brain mass, serologic diagnosis of toxocara (+), other causes have been ruled out.... If you have a blood count test, if your eosinophils are high, people will think you are really infected with tapeworms and only then will you be treated.

If you simply have toxocara diagnostic serum (+) and nothing else, no treatment is needed. In this case, whether you need to take medication or not depends on the outcome of your discussion with your doctor.

4. To prevent dog fluke disease

To prevent canine flu, you need to take the following measures:
Eat cooked food and drink, regularly maintain hygiene when interacting or playing with dogs. It is advisable to take the dog for regular check-ups as well as for thorough treatment when detecting that the dog is infected with flukes. Canine flu is easily transmitted from dogs to humans, although it is rare, but we still have to prevent and pay special attention. Early detection and treatment help reduce the risk of affecting human health and life.
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