Intestinal parasites are a type of parasite that lives in the gastro-intestinal tract in humans and animals. Many of these can actually survive any in the body but remain in the intestinal wall. The two common types of infection in the intestines will be protozans (organisms with a single cell) and parasitic worms (or ‘helminths’). Protozans utilise the nutrients from the stool in order to survive. If you zoomed in close on one it would look like a jellyfish. Meanwhile the intestinal worms can range in species from roundworms, tapeworms or flues and are several millimetres to metres in size. They too eat bowel content and also suck blood from the intestinal wall. For the particularly unfortunate it is possible to have both types of infestation in the intestine at once, and it is not uncommon for these infections to move to the digestive tract. Infestation can occur through various means of exposure. These include consuming uncooked or undercooked meat, larva infected soil, skin absorption, or drinking infected water.

From case to case the symptoms of this infection will vary depending on the nature of the infection and the individual’s resistance etc. However some of the more common symptoms include abdominal pain, myositis, anaemia, constipation, weight loss, vitamin B-12 deficiency, sight problem, chronic fatigue, chest pain, diarrhoea, dizziness, fever, swelling, colitis, dysuria, headaches, jaundice, joint pain, sweating, insomnia, ulcers, memory loss, muscle spasms and others. This is by no means an exhaustive list and a patient may experience any or all of these symptoms. Indeed in many cases they will experience no symptoms at all. This makes diagnosis fairly tricky, but the main signs will be prolonged bloating or diarrhoea which comes on slowly and intermittently after eating the infected meat. The GP will then test for ova and paraists in the stool, and should perform this test three times with different stool samples to be more sure not to get a false negative. Blood tests can also show tell tail signs such as low ferritin, haemoglobin or red blood ells. Finally a CT or biopsy might be used.

If a patient is diagnosed as having intestinal parasites they will be treated with anti-prasitic drugs such as metronidazole, quinacrine, tinidazole and furazolidone. Preventative measures should also be taken, such as washing hands thoroughly before eating and after excretion, cooking food properly, washing raw vegetables and fruits and being careful to avoid certain foods and waters when in countries such as south America, Africa or South Asia. The risk of intestinal parasites is worse in these third world countries due to poorer hygiene and a lack of clean water sources.

Mark Perry

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