what is it????

Question

I've just read the question about losing loads of weight - 3 stone.
and a couple of people when answering saying it could be "tapeworm" what is it? and what does it do ?

Answer 1

Well here you go -

Tapeworm infection is an intestinal disease caused by one of several species of tapeworms, including Taenia saginata (beef tapeworm), Taenia solium (pork tapeworm), and Diphyllobothrium latum (fish tapeworm).

Pork Tapeworm

Fish Tapeworm


Tapeworms are large, flat worms that live in the intestine and can grow 15 to 30 feet in length. Egg-bearing sections of the worm (proglottids) are passed in the stool. If untreated human waste is released into the environment, the eggs may be ingested by intermediate hosts, such as pigs, cattle, or (in the case of fish tapeworms) small crustaceans, which are in turn ingested by fish. The eggs hatch in the intermediate host, then the larvae invade the intestinal wall and are carried through the bloodstream to skeletal muscle and other tissues, where they form cysts. People acquire the parasite by eating the cysts in raw or undercooked meat or fish. The cysts hatch and develop into adult worms, which latch onto the person's intestinal wall. The worms then grow in length.

A Beef Tapeworm

People may also act as an intermediate host for the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. Pork tapeworm eggs reach the stomach when a person swallows them in food or water contaminated with human feces or from contact with the unclean hands of a person infected with adult worms. The eggs may also reach the stomach when proglottids are regurgitated from the intestine. Once the larvae are released, they penetrate the intestinal wall and travel to muscles, internal organs, the brain (see Infections of the Brain and Spinal Cord: Parasitic Infections), or tissue under the skin, where they form cysts (cysticerci). This form of the disease is called cysticercosis.

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Although tapeworms in the intestine usually cause no symptoms, some people experience upper abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. Occasionally, a person with tapeworms may feel a piece of the worm move out through the anus. Rarely, tapeworms acquired from fish cause anemia.

Cysts in the brain and meninges (the tissues covering the brain) in people with cysticercosis may cause inflammation, resulting in headache, confusion, other neurologic symptoms, and commonly, seizures.

A doctor diagnoses intestinal tapeworm infection by finding worm segments or eggs in a stool sample. Cysticercosis is more difficult to diagnose; however, cysts in the brain can be seen with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning. Blood tests for antibodies to the pork tapeworm also are helpful.

Prevention and Treatment

The first line of defense against tapeworms is careful evaluation of meat and fish by trained inspectors. Cysts are visible in infected meat. Thorough cooking (such that all meat reaches more than 135° F) and prolonged freezing will kill cysts. For this reason, freshwater fish should not be served as sushi, and should only be eaten after it has been cooked, frozen, or cured. Smoking and drying do not kill cysts.

A person with tapeworms is treated with a single oral dose of praziquantelSome Trade Names
BILTRICIDE
. Cysticercosis is usually not treated unless it involves the brain, in which case antiparasitic drugs (such as albendazoleSome Trade Names
ALBENZA
or praziquantelSome Trade Names
BILTRICIDE
) may be given along with corticosteroids, which help reduce inflammation.

Answer 2

It is a parasitic infection because the tapeworm is a living parasite that lives in your gut. It can grow up to such a big size that some people have been rumoured to tug them out of their *** after a difficult defecation episode.
The tapeworm will leech on the nutrients in your intestine, so that ur intestine has less nutrients to absorb.

Answer 3

Tapeworm is a worm that resembles a tape. It is parasite that lives in peoples intestines. it can grow very long and it survives by eating the nutrients from the food you eat.

Answer 4

parasitic worm: a flatworm with a long ribbon-shaped segmented body that exists in many varieties and lives mainly as a parasite in the gut of vertebrate animals.
Infestation is common among domestic animals, and humans can also become infested, especially by eating undercooked meat containing tapeworm larvae.

Answer 5

Well, a tapeworm is basically a worm that drains nutrients from, you. No details, cause it is kinda gross. Have your doc check it out because if they ARE tapeworms, they could multiply and give you hell.

P.S. They multiply FAST and BIG.

Answer 6

Cats can get Tapeworm - it lives in there gut

Answer 7

a lovely parasite that can grow to be feet long that hooks into ur intesitinal tract and eats all ur nutrients form food before ur body can. drs used to administer it in the early century as a dieting aid before they realised, once its in, its hard to get out!google it and look at the images, icky

Answer 8

...tapeworm is a parasite which lives in your intestine and which basically consumes any food and therefore any nutrients you do...it eats your food for you...but is incredibly bad for you...note the word 'parasite'...xxx

Answer 9

a tape worm lives in ur throat and it eats all ur food u eat but doesnt affect ur breathing so u dont know its there and umm sum symptoms of it is u always feel empty like u havent eaten and u feel sick all the time

Answer 10

you can pick them up from cat/dog poo and they live in your gut /intestines, you would need medical help to clear them up