Anthelmintic for prevention: pros and cons

Worms can start at the child, even if there are no pets in the house. So is it worth giving anthelmintic drugs “for every fireman”?

We have collected all the pros and cons of this procedure.

Within a month after starting treatment, it is important not to get infected again. To do this, clean the house, cut your nails as short as possible, regularly wash and iron bed and underwear.

The baby can be drunk with freshly squeezed carrot juice daily. But pumpkin seeds as an anthelmintic are ineffective: they must be eaten in very large quantities in order to “drive off” the worms.

Behind:

• It happens that the analysis is not the first time reveals “uninvited guests.” Quoting the famous mustachioed doctor: “Sometimes 9 tests are negative, and the 10th is positive. So, go to the clinic ten times? Get in the hospital for a daily lab-controlled cacao? ”
• An infection with enterobiosis (pinworms) a routine analysis of feces for helminths will not show. These parasites are detected by a special scraping with a spatula from the anus, and it must be done early in the morning.
•  The analysis is not always convenient to collect, for example, in infants. When collecting feces from the diaper, you need to make sure that urine does not get on it.
• There is always a risk of catching parasites. The city sandbox, poorly washed vegetables and fruits, dirty hands, infected meat and dairy products, water, someone else’s toy, a neighbor’s dog, sand, where an infected cat or dog passed and which the child pulled into his mouth, it is literally impossible to foresee everything.
•  The child has other signs of infection with worms. In the acute stage, these are allergic reactions (their cause is antibodies that the body produces in response to uninvited guests), weight loss for no apparent reason, skin itching in the anus, poor appetite, lethargy, drowsiness, diarrhea, discomfort in the abdomen.
• If worms are not noticed in time and treatment is not started, unpleasant consequences are possible: starting with anemia, a lack of protein in the body, slowing down growth and development, and ending with serious diseases of the internal organs and death. The chronic stage of helminth infection can occur within a few weeks after the appearance of “acute” symptoms.
•  WHO recommends annual preventive use of anthelmintic drugs for residents of regions where infection can be through the soil. These are the USA, China, East Asia, and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. If you live in endemic countries or have a vacation there with a child – the likelihood of infection is more.

Against

• To check whether there are worms or not, a simple analysis of feces for helminth eggs is enough. The average cost in paid laboratories in Moscow is 400 rubles.
• The best ways to strengthen the baby’s immunity
  There is no magic tool to protect babies from diseases and infections. But there are ways to support his immune system until she learns herself to deal effectively with infections.

  It is best to treat the parasite found with a specific drug, and not a wide spectrum medicine. For example, finding pinworms, treat enterobiosis, roundworm – ascariasis. For this, special medicines are used.

• Preventive treatment does not always work. If toxocara eggs enter the body, a prophylactic dose of anthelmintic drugs will only make it worse. And enterobiosis can reappear if there is a source of infection (for example, parasite eggs under the nails).
• Anthelmintic drugs (for example, mebendazole) are toxic and burden the liver with unnecessary work.
• WHO does not classify Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as countries where prophylactic anthelmintic drugs are recommended.

Expert opinion:

Anthelmintic of a child older than 1.5 years must be done twice a year. Even if there are no pets, there is a sandbox. I usually prescribe vermox, decaris, pyrantel.