How to Deworm Yourself: Medicines, Benefits & Safety

The best way to deworm yourself depends on your symptoms and your age as well as if you are pregnant. There are deworming medications that act very quickly and can be taken if needed. There are also deworming medications that take up to 6 weeks to act and should be taken to treat an infection that was found to be dormant.

What is Deworming?

Medication for preventing parasitic worms Worm medicine is also referred to as an anti-worm medicine. The four types of worms living in the body include the intestinal worm or the enteric worm which include, in order from largest to smallest: roundworm; hookworm, pinworm and the whipworm. Any of these parasites you can acquire by consuming food or water that contain infected parasitic worms or through touching others that have one or a contaminated surface.

Hookworms can also infect individuals by way of the skin if the parasites make a way for themselves when a person walks outdoors in the elements.

Various forms of worm medicine exist, and rely on blocking the parasites’ way of life or blocking their pathways to be fed by either their brains or a more complicated metabolism.

It is necessary to appreciate that not all treatments for all types of worms exist. You would not use the same medicine for a tapeworm as you would use for a hookworm or pinworm.

How to deworm yourself?

Instead of guessing and taking random medicines, you should try to identify the worm infection as best you can.

A health worker would take notes on the symptoms. From there, they may ask about recent travels, how water is treated and how food is handled, other infected household members, and how likely you are to have been exposed. An intestinal parasite stool sample may be taken. For suspected pinworms, a tape-off test is done.

For common soil-transmitted worms the CDC recommends either albendazole or mebendazole. The CDC also notes that for these worms treatment can be very effective and done in one to three days, depending on the worm and the prescribed medicine.

Pinworms are treated the same as hook and tapeworms. After treatment for pinworms, the eggs survive. Because of the high likelihood of reinfection, treatment should be given to the entire household as well as good hygiene practices to prevent reinfection.

Do humans need to deworm?

Routine treatment may not be needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages preventive treatment of certain groups on a repeated basis as a control measure against intestinal worms in high burden settings, with high emphasis on children living in those areas. The recommendation is based on infection rates in the community, not on the presumed desire of an individual to ‘cleanse’ their system.

How long for worming tablets to work humans?

In many cases, short courses of one or two days at the most, may be sufficient to treat common soil-transmitted helminth infections, as recommended in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

Pinworms are an exception to this rule. Treatment for pinworms is a two-step process. The first treatment is administered to kill the pinworms. Eggs may still be present after this treatment to contaminate the environment and subsequently re-infect individuals. A second treatment is administered two weeks after the first treatment to eliminate any pinworms which would have hatched during the first treatment.

While the drug may work relatively quickly on worms, digestive symptoms or inflammation may take time to resolve and symptoms may persist. A healthcare provider should be consulted before self-administering anti-helminthic treatment.

Benefits

There are many benefits of treating suspected or confirmed worm infection and often include the following:

• Eliminating or lessening the burden of parasites
• Alleviation of symptoms caused by intestinal worms
• Potential increase in appetite
• Less chance of developing illnesses caused by heavy worm infections
• Working to prevent the spread of worm infections, especially when dealing with community spread
• Improving some of the health concerns caused by the presence of worms in the body
• Some worms that reside in the body steal nutrients causing anemia, diarrhea, and nutritional health concerns.
• Infections with excessive worms can cause different digestive problems and health issues.

Leading research has many good reasons to practice caution when implementing mass treatment to control parasites. If you use packets of deworming  for humans on a large scale, then you are not going to see improvements in the height of children, their cognitive functions, school performance, or a decrease in their mortality rates. It is important to mention that treating worm infections is not a waste of time. It is simply communicating a more complex reality regarding the health benefits of mass deworming programs than simply handing out a treatment pill to everyone.

What is the best medicine for worms in humans?

For the treatment of worms in humans, there is no specific best medicine, as each worm requires an individual prescription.

Albendazole and mebendazole are prescribed for the same group of soil-transmitted intestinal worms. Per the CDC, other options for the treatment of these classes of worms medicines  are Ivermectin 12, pyrantel pamoate, and Mebentel 500.

For pinworms, some of the more common medications are pyrantel pamoate, mebendazole, or albendazole.

Other worms require other medications. For individual tapeworm infections, the primary treatment is usually praziquantel.

General practice is to not treat worms based on the term “worms.” Painstakingly considering the information provided by a medical professional is recommended to assure correct treatment.

How to treat worms in kids?

Intestinal worms in children are more of a concern if they live or play in areas that lack proper hygiene and sanitation.

As recommended by the WHO, preventative deworming in settings that have a high burden of soil-transmitted helminth infections should be considered. Depending on the location and the prevalence of infections, some communities have programs that provide either annually or biannually albendazole or mebendazole.

For children suspected of having worms, especially young children and children with other medical concerns, parents should not attempt to estimate a dose based on the adult packet. Age, weight, the type of worm, and the particular medication all need to be taken into account.

Is deworming safe for humans?

Deworming medicines, while safe for most when administered appropriately, should not be considered risk-free.

Some people experience abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, etc. as side effects. The extent of these effects is determined by the specific medication as well as the duration and nature of the treatment, the age and health of the patient, etc.

Conclusion

Deworming therapy can cure intestinal worm infections if the correct medicine matches the type of parasite. The use of different medicines, such as albendazole, mebendazole, pyrantel pamoate, ivermectin, and praziquantel, depends on the type of worm. Thus, it is not advisable to take a random deworming pill.

Even with the 1.5 billion people estimated to be suffering from STHs (World Health Organization), worm infections continue to be a serious health concern. Current research suggests that not all the health benefits indicated for mass treatment are achieved through the regular administration of anthelmintics. The best solution is to combine treatment of worm infections with good hand hygiene, prevention of reinfection, safe water, safe food, and good sanitation.