What happens if threadworms are untreated

Eggs that have been swallowed will hatch inside the intestine. After 2 weeks, the worms reach adult size and begin to reproduce, starting the cycle again. Read more about what causes threadworms. If you or your child has threadworms, everyone in your household will need to be treated as there's a high risk of the infection spreading.

This includes those who don't have any symptoms of an infection. For most people, treatment will involve taking a single dose of a medication called mebendazole to kill the worms. If necessary, another dose can be taken after 2 weeks. During treatment and for a few weeks afterwards, it's also important to follow strict hygiene measures to avoid spreading the threadworm eggs. This includes regularly vacuuming your house and thoroughly washing your bathroom and kitchen.

If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, hygiene measures are usually recommended without medication. This is also often the case for young children.

Read more about treating threadworm infections. It's not always possible to prevent a threadworm infection, but you can significantly reduce your risk by always maintaining good hygiene and encouraging children to do the same. Children should wash their hands regularly, particularly after going to the toilet and before mealtimes. Kitchen and bathroom surfaces should be kept clean. If your child is infected, encouraging them not to scratch the affected area around their anus or vagina will help prevent reinfection and reduce the risk of the infection spreading to others.

However, they can cause intense itching around the anus and the vagina in girls , particularly at night when the female worms are laying eggs. This can disturb sleep. In some cases, you may spot threadworms on your bed clothes or sheets at night, or you may notice them in your stools.

The worms look like threads of white cotton and are about 1 centimetre long. A female threadworm can lay thousands of tiny eggs around the anus or vagina. The female threadworm also releases mucus, which can cause an itchy bottom. Scratching the anus or vagina, or wiping them after going to the toilet, can cause the eggs to stick to your fingertips or under your fingernails.

If you don't wash your hands, the eggs can be transferred to your mouth or on to food or objects, such as toys and kitchen utensils. If someone else touches a contaminated object, or eats contaminated food and then touches their mouth, they'll become infected. After the eggs have been swallowed they pass into a person's intestine, where they hatch.

After about 2 weeks the threadworms will have grown into adults, at which point they'll reproduce and the cycle of infection will start again. As well as being swallowed by a person who touches a contaminated object or surface, threadworm eggs can also be swallowed after being breathed in. This can happen if the eggs become airborne — for example, after shaking a contaminated towel or bed sheet. Threadworms only infect humans and aren't spread in animal faeces. However, there's a small risk that threadworms can be caught from pets if the animal's fur becomes contaminated with eggs after an infected person strokes it.

If another person then touches the animal's fur, the eggs could be passed on to them. Threadworm infections most commonly affect young children because they often forget to wash their hands and they share toys with other children.

People who are in close contact with someone with a threadworm infection also have a high risk of infection. This is why all members of a household need to be treated when someone has a threadworm infection.

Read more about treating threadworms. To treat threadworms successfully, all household members must be treated, even if they don't have any symptoms. Learn more about home remedies for pinworms. In rare cases, if the infestation is left untreated, pinworm infections can lead to a urinary tract infection UTI in women. Pinworms can also travel from the anus into the vagina, affecting the uterus , fallopian tubes , and other pelvic organs.

This may result in other infections, including vaginitis and endometritis. Endometritis is an inflammation of the uterine lining. The presence of a significant number of pinworms can cause abdominal pain. Substantial pinworm populations can rob your body of essential nutrients, which can cause weight loss. The best way to prevent pinworm infections and reinfections is to follow recommended hygiene routines and encourage other household members, especially children, to do the same.

However, because pinworm eggs are invisible to the naked eye and are highly contagious, reinfection can easily occur. If you or a loved one has a pinworm infection, everyone in your household should get treatment.

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What do pinworms look like? What are the symptoms of a pinworm infection? What causes a pinworm infection? Is it possible to get pinworms from your pets? How is a pinworm infection diagnosed? In Britain, the threadworm sometimes called the pinworm is the only common type of worm to live as a parasite in humans.

However, because threadworm infestation is harmless, readily treated and there is no reporting mechanism, there are no statistics of its incidence in the UK. According to one consultant physician, threadworm infestation is as common in children as head lice and affects most families at some time. Threadworms usually produce no symptoms except an itchy bottom. In fact, people may harbour them for years without realising it. Distaste aside, threadworms do no harm - except, as my GP wryly observed, to the sufferer's self-esteem.

The worms are white and about a centimetre long by 0. They most often make their presence felt by anal itching but can also be seen in the faeces. The worms live in the intestinal tract but do not reproduce there. They spread themselves by nipping out to lay their microscopic eggs around the anus. If the eggs are then transferred to the mouth, they pass to the gut, hatch and the cycle repeats itself. The usual method of transference is on the fingers after using the toilet or scratching; finger-to-mouth contact is most common among children but adults who smoke or bite their nails are also at risk.

Adults with children are quite likely to pick up worms by nappy-changing, bottom-wiping, and handling youngsters' clothing.