Threadworms

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 209, 25 June 1943, Page 10

Threadworms

| (Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

H.

B.

TURBOTT

. Director of the Division

of School Hygiene, Health Department)

worms is very common and very difficult to overcome, Threadworms (known also as pin or seat worms), are white in colour, from one-quarter to one-third of an inch in length, and about the thickness of a piece of fine cotton thread. They have the appearance of short lengths of cotton thread in the child’s motions (faeces). [ rerms is of children with threadTo get threadworms, a child has to swallow the eggs, picked up from other infected children or domestic animals, Once a child has threadworms, the infection continues through the child reinfecting itself; the eggs are carried on fingers and under fingernails to the mouth, and swallowed. They go through the stomach to the bowel, hatching out in the small intestine. When full grown, the worms pass down to the large intestine. The females crawl out of the anus, wandering around buttocks and crutsh depositing eggs. The crawling of the worms causes’ intense itching; in the process of scratching, worms are crushed and further eggs freed. The hands and fingers carry some of these eggs back to the mouth, and so a vicious circle of re-infection is completed. Picking at the nose and crying at night do not necessarily indicate worms, The commonest trouble is irritation about the anus (and vulva in girls), disturbing sleep, so that the child is restless and scratches, even when asleep. The child is usually pale, loses weight and appetite, so that the result is a thin child that picks at its food and doesn’t make the progress it should. There may be attacks of diarrhoea, and bouts of abdominal pain should the infection become heavy. Appendicitis may be suspected, and even operated for, when all the time a severe dose of threadworms is the trouble. Once discovered, the threadworms should be treated and overcome, or the child’s development will suffer. Keep the nails short to avoid eggs lodging there, and be carefyl that the hands and fingers don’t get contaminated with faeces. This means washing hands and brushing nails frequently each day, always after visiting the lavatory and before eating food. Night and morning apply white precipitate ointment to the anus to kill worms or eggs there, In bed, the hands should be gloved and pyjamas worn to stop the child scratching and carrying eggs to the mouth. Bed sheets should be boiled at least twice weekly. The child’s debility must be countered with a well-balanced diet, adding cod liver oil, and giving two teaspoonfuls in a cup of water with meals over a prolonged period, of the following tonic: dilute hydrochloric acid 30 drops, dextrose 30 grains, water up to 120 drops, A chemist will make this up. The most suitable drug for treatment is Butolan, now off the market owing to the war. The newest drug is probably gentian violet, 1-6th grain per year of the child per day divided into three daily doses, treatment being given for one week, then (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) stopped for one week, and so on until six courses of the tablets have been given (a doctor’s advice is advisable). Failing this, santonin may be tried. It is usual for three or four weeks to give a warm soapsuds or salt enema (15 teaspoons salt to the quart warm water) every other night or morning to discourage and wash out the female egg-laying worm.