HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 82, 19 June 1945, Page 7

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

TREATMENT OF ROUND-WORMS

(By the Department of Health) A not uncommon trouble in children is which are quite distinct, from that very common nuisance, the threadworm. The round-worm is much hi Ljgei in size and appearance except that it's paler and resembling the. earthworm and being anything lrom 6 to 8 inches long when fully grown. The round-worm doesn't need an intermediate host ior its development as infection may lie direct. Sometimes, dogs or cats -harbour round-worms, and then eggs are carried to the mouth on the child's fingers and swallowed after fondling and. playing, with these animals. When an egg is swallowed by a child it hatches in the small intestine and. then docs a peculiar thing, ft passes to the liver, thence to the lungs. From here it worms its way up the through the voicebox and turns down the gullet. It passes through the stomach to grow to maturity in the small intestine. There is stays and passes its eggs out into the bowel contents. Wherever these go outside the body the eggs travel too. They may, of get on to clothes and lingers and fingernails. \ child may harbour lrom l'oui to six adult worms j or more rarely have dozens oL' them. The. child is restless especially at nights. He has little or a tricky appetite, and may have attacks of abdominal pain or vomiting at times. Occasionally a worm is passed per rectum and more rarely may be produced from the child's mouth. Diagnosis is clear when an. adult worm is found j but apart from this, it is made by having samples of the faeces examined far eggs. If round-worms are found to be present, reduce the fats- and proteins (meat etc.) in the diet; and give a powder of santonin and calomel at bedtime for three nights, and a small dose of salts or iruit salts in the mornings. Avoid castor oil when giving this treatment. Santonin followed by salts is best.