Where to get tapeworms

Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Is a Tapeworm Infection? What Causes a Tapeworm Infection? Most people with a tapeworm infection got it by: eating raw or undercooked beef, pork, or fish infected with tapeworm or contact with poop that contains tapeworm eggs.

People can pass tapeworm eggs to others when they don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. Tapeworm eggs in feces can then spread into food or onto surfaces like doorknobs. Then, a child might complain of: mild nausea diarrhea belly pain weight loss Kids with a tapeworm infection may feel a piece of the worm coming out through the anus where the poop comes out. This can lead to: lumps under the skin seizures vision problems an abnormal heartbeat weakness or trouble walking Cysticercosis is rare in the United States, but common in many developing countries.

How Is a Tapeworm Infection Diagnosed? How Is a Tapeworm Infection Treated? Can Tapeworm Infections Be Prevented? To help protect your family from tapeworm infections: Wash your hands well and often with soap and warm water, especially after using the bathroom and before touching food.

Teach your kids to do the same. To get the parasite out of a person's body, doctors will usually prescribe an anti-worm medication like praziquantel or niclosamide, which force all the muscles in the worm's body to contract, killing it. The tapeworm will then harmlessly pass through the intestines and out of the body.

Years ago, Quinlisk volunteered for the Peace Corps and spent time in Nepal, where she would see people suffering from tapeworms they swallowed while eating undercooked, infested meat. The tapeworms made these Nepalese Quinlisk saw very ill, robbing them of many nutrients their food would have otherwise provided for them. Diet historian Susan Yager, "just cannot believe" people would use tapeworms to shed pounds. One tapeworm can't absorb enough food and nutrients to make a big difference in weight, according to scientific research.

But the parasite can cause anemia and malnutrition. Another problem: One tapeworm can grow up to 30 feet long. And because a tapeworm has both male and female reproductive systems, a woman who starts out with one worm could be spreading a bunch of fertilized worm eggs every time she goes to the bathroom. A century ago, hucksters often sold tapeworm eggs in pill form as a weight-loss aid, Quinlisk said.

Our food is really safe in the United States. We have food inspectors and things like that. But it is possible. We do receive tapeworms at ARUP that the person has no travel history outside of the United States, so that means that they would've contracted it somehow in the United States.

Interviewer: A lot of times you see the eggs, and that's how you know that somebody. Have you actually been sent a tapeworm? We get a couple tapeworms that you can see with the naked eye.

We get at least a couple a month. To the naked eye, the different tapeworms have some different characteristics, and so we can identify which type of tapeworm they have from that segment. Again, tapeworms are not super-common in the United States, so don't be scared. If you like your beef rare, I say eat it. Kristen: If you do travel to other countries where the food isn't inspected as well as it is here in the United States, be careful.

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Find a doctor or location close to you so you can get the health care you need, when you need it. Interviewer: I mean, I joke, but look. I did an internet search.

Look at this. Interviewer: That was a weight loss method at one point. Kristen: You get tapeworms from undercooked meat. Kristen: Undercooked beef, pork, and even fish.