Tape worms fit in to a group of worms named cestoda, so therefore are known medically as cestodes. The tapeworm is a flat worm that is almost ribbon like in shape. People will catch tape worm by handling faeces that has been contaminated and then inevitably places their hands near or in their mouth.People can also get tape worm by eating food or water that has contaminated faeces in it. People can even get tapeworm by swallowing raw pork, fish and/or beef. Tapeworms can grow to an incredible length from fifteen feet to thirty feet which is four and a half meters to nine meters and you will definitely need some form of treatment to remove the tapeworm.
Symptoms
When you first become a host for a tapeworm you may not even realize it. The symptoms unfortunately can be easily mistaken for another type of illness because the signs are vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain which as we all know can be symptoms of many many other illnesses.
Types
There is not just one type of tapeworm, there are many but the ones that are most likely to affect human beings are as follows. The pork tapeworm also known as Taenia solium, the beef tapeworm also known as Taenia saginata, the fish tapeworm also known as Diphyllobothrium latum the dwarf tapeworm also known as Hymenolepis nana and the dog tapeworm also known as Echinococcus granulosus.
When some of the types of tapeworm hatch new larvae into your intestinal system then this can cause you to have other symptoms, the main culprits of this crime are the pork tapeworm and the dog tapeworm. The infections of tapeworm are usually found in the more developing countries. If you look at the UK for example the amount of reported tapeworm infections are far and few between. However in 2005 there were reports of both beef and pork tapeworm, 712 cases to be precise but it is unknown if these were obtained abroad or not. In the same year the disease called hydatid which is caused by the dog tapeworm had eleven cases to its name.
Treatment
The beef tapeworm is simply treated with tablets as it only lives in your intestines. Unfortunately though the other tapeworm infections can and will cause you to have some quite serious complications and the infection left from a larvae can cause even more serious complications for the reason that the larvae can be found in others parts of your body and not just in your intestines.
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