HI, I've had treadworms for almost 5 years now! Ive been eating loads of Opex and Mebendazole. I tried the pumpkin seeds and eaten garlic every day for months...I've also gone up to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases In London to see a specialist for the last 8 months....All their treatment has not worked either. It always comes back! My husband or my two children have never had it and we dont have any pets....I keep a very clean house and im so careful with my hygiene...What can i do to get rid of these? Help Please.....Its driving me insane!
Yes I hear you they will drive you insane! I developed anxiety something I had never experienced before. I to went to a tropical disease specialist, useless. When I told them the symptoms, they declared them "impossible".
At this point I am sure you feeling you have tried everything and you at going to be stuck with them for the rest of your life.
Please do yourself a favour go and see a reputable kinesiologist/ chiro. Western medicine does not have all the answers. In my case they were a god send. I left with answers and a plan, crying in the car on the way home with relief.
Really what do you have to lose???
Hi, I haven't yet looked into that option....have you had a similar experience? Have you been cured or are you still suffering?
What are your symptoms?
I have threadworms for sure as I've seen them in my stool sample and also when I get an itch I've used a mirror......I get them between weeks apart or up to two months apart....also done samples to GP and it's been confirmed. There is no doubt in my case of what it is!!
I think that if you have had them for 5 years that the rest of your family must also have them. Lots of people do not experience the symptoms and can transfer eggs onto surfaces without knowing. Are you taking their word for it or have you checked. My husband swears blind that he does not have them but his clothes and especially underwear are covered in little white dots.
The whole family needs to be treated but be careful taking to much ovex etc as they can cause liver damage.
Good luck.
Hi, yes they have all been treated three times even though they have never had it. I would know for sure with my children if they had it and I do believe my hubby tells me the truth. It's really strange that's it is only me who gets it all the time, over and over again..
I dont mean to sound critical, but you would not necessarily know for sure if your kids have it as it is quite common to be infected yet symptom free. It also isn't a question of your husband telling you the truth or not, he may genuinely believe he is not infected as he may have no symptoms either. It is a real possibility you should not discount. Good luck!
Desiree, thanks for your message. Alla feedback is greatly appreciated. I thought if you have worms you would definitely know about it? So if you have them, don't they always come out at some stage? I thought they did....
The worms come out at night in the early hours to deposit their eggs, but not everyone is conscious of this and so may scratch even in your sleep without knowing, and if the eggs are microscopic can they not fall through the weave of the material so wearing tight fitting panties doesn't really help as much as we think. Personally I have only ever seen one live female worm disappear down the loo squirming some time ago and I have had these for over 3 years.
I am constantly aware of all over body itching which is absolutely terrible and has had a really regative affect upon my self esteem and the idea that there is nothing on the market that can guarantee total elimation is soul destroying.
I have emailed the School of Parasitology to ask if there is any medication in the offing that can help all of the threadworm sufferers.
When you think about the reason why we cannot get rid of these parasites, you don't know who has touched what. When you are out shopping etc and you buy something to eat can you be sure that you are not infecting yourself from the wrappings etc of someone who has handled the item not knowing they are infected. Where does it all end - if at all. Soooooo frustrating.
The doctor up at Tropical hospital london are also baffled. He's told me they have given me all the medication they have for this issue. It makes me feel like crying. How can I always get it back.? Just me? Can it be, if you've had it once you are more susceptible to it? I'm surely are. Family has all taken medication on several occasions and washed, cleaned etc. but only me getting reinfected again. I've seen the worms almost every time I've had it, so there is not doubt.
The lasts treatment was from the tropical d hospital, I ate one tablet ( the strongest one that have to offer me...) every days for 6 weeks.. And now after two months I've got it again........ Surely the worms can't still survive and appear again after so long? They says the life spam of a threadworm is 5-6 weeks.I must be getting re infected again. But how?? 😞😞
I believe, from what I have gleened from the internet searches, that the cycle for threadworrms can be as long as 3-4 months.
Diatomaceous earth is given to animals with parasite problems over a 13 week peiod so I suppose logically it could take as long if not longer than that.
Having said that I couldn't take it for longer than 5 weeks as I had really bad skin reaction on my hands and they scabbed up and the skin cracked.
Sorry to be so negative but when you google threadworms it is soul destroying to read that not many folks, if any at all, do actually have a positive result with chemical and herbal medication. I have sort of resigned myself to the fact that I am in for the long haul if I can stand the irritation that long.
It's a very common condition to have. We're fighting it right now in my house. For a week or so my son would squirm from the itching but only when he had a BM. Once I took him to the doctor early in the a.m. the doctor did a tape test and found no eggs. I insisted on a lab and a few mornings later we did the lab and the lab found a small amount of eggs. He was the only one with any symptoms. We have foregone albendazole for a much much much cheaper pyrantel pamoate. Being a parent of younger children 7,10,12 I can say that kids ( at least mine ) VERY rarely are able to follow the kind of hygiene it requires to beat something like this. Even my 12 yr old can't remember to wash her hands EVERYTIME she decides to shove food in it. And I'm sure anyone with a 5 yr old boy can see the nice brown stains in their underware. From not wiping well, perhaps but my money is on scratching.
I'm sorry to hear about your hard time, I'm a bit of a germaphobe and I've taught my kids ( in some cases unsuccessfuly ) wash wash wash your hands. I found out shortly after this all started that their school does not ask them to wash their hands before lunch and in 1 case sends kids directly to the lunchroom from recess. I'm trying to be optomistic...
Anyway I'll toss out a few ideas for you and some extra things I've been doing that you may not have thought of in addition to morning showers and in some cases even after having a bm.
FIRST consider your furnace filter if you have one. not all of them are rated to catching things like pinworm eggs. I dont even know if mine are but I purchased the highest rating I could which is supposed to catch things as small as .3 microns, several times smaller than pinworm eggs. Also it seems reasonable that your furnace and/or a/c, fans, etc will spread dust which will likely contain eggs all over your house.
SECOND heat your house up and keep blinds open for sunlight, if you can, preferably dry heat like a fireplace. Pinworm eggs don't do well in heat but thrive in cooler damp climates and in fabrics. I didn't go crazy but I set my thermostat to 75 it may not help but I figure every bit will help. I found a site once that said they can only survive 16hrs if the temperature is hot and dry. I've also read the 2-3 weeks thing which pertains to optimal conditions but I've read they lose infectivity in 1-2 days on normal surfaces and are not likley to do well hard surfaces. 16 hours seems like a pipe dream right now lol
THIRD put the toilet seat down before flushing ( should be done weather or not you have pinworms in the house ) This will keep from eggs that may have fallen in or got stuck on the rim from getting airborn in your bathroom. Then clean the toilet after each use. I'll leave it to you to decide how long to keep up that practice.
FOUR wipe everything you use daily. I don't go super crazy cleaning mostly because I dont want to stir up new dust to get blown around. I wipe the couches, counters, fixtures, light switches, keys, car doors/buckles/shifter etc. and anything else people touch, and mop, twice a day. Consider cabinet door edgeds and walls as well.
FIVE consider that you're being reinfected the same way you were infected in the first place. School, nieghbors, family friends, there are so many ways. Have everyone wash their hands when they come home from school, consider wiping books, backpack, etc to eliminate eggs they may be picking up. You're obviously getting reinfected somewhere you just have to eliminate the source. I've even read stories about people not getting rid of them until they have moved away. Extreme but I gotta say I'd consider it if I was continously infected.
Currently I'm only 1 week in and have washed all bedding and clothes every day since treatment. in 6 more days I'll repeat the dose of reese's for everyone and we'll hope and pray for the best.
All of that being said I'll say this. My sons pediatrician told me that in all his years as a doctor he hasn't once tested for pinworms and when someone calls with the sypmtoms he just perscribes them albendazole for the whole family which is $500 a dose here btw. For a family of 5 thats quite the investment and may or may not kill 100% of the females.
Being clean doesn't mean the eggs aren't in your house and being dirty doesn't mean that they are. The statistics are scary. I've seen posts with claims like 90% of walls and surfaces in homes with a pinworm infestation contained eggs. It's important to be diligent and require the same diligence around you, it only takes one butt scratch and a door knob, light switch, toilet seat etc to reinfect everyone in your home. Persistent infestations seems like hell and require an extraordinary amount of dedication to eradicated. You must also consider the other side of the coin and the longstanding repercussions and the strain on your family. Does the cure justify the means. I almost get choked up when I think of those little buggers inside my family but I also know that they aren't dangerous physically. But the mental stress of constant cleaning and fear can be sevire. I'm comforted by the fact that considering the amount of infections there are in the US and worldwide that there aren't more google results. You aren't going to get very many people coming to google to sing the praises of being worm free and are FAR FAR more likely to see the horror stories of lifelong infections. Just like consumer reivews your far more likely to see a complaint that good feedback, most people just aren't interested in telling anyone good things these days.
Thanks for you advise. The medicine is not expensive here in the uk.
But my problem is, it's only ME who has it. No one else in the family has ever had it over the last 5 years that I've suffered from it.
Now, if there is eggs floating around in my house why don't anyone else get it? Ever?
We don't have air condition only underfloor heating so no filter to change.
Im thinking, the worms might never leave my body? Can that be it.. .?
The longest I've been without it is around 3 months, and then it comes back. Even though my family members have never had it they all been treated for it. Just incase..
im feeling lost in options..
is this something that is never going away? Do people really live with it all their lives? 😞
As I said in my last reply - pinworms are cyclicle and can re-appear anything up to 3/4 months. They treat animals for 13 weeks for their kind of pinworms funny that the longest you have ever been free of them is 3 months (13 weeks).
Think taking your medication/herbal whatever over a longer period of time. Not everyday but as prescribed and keep up your hygiene.
Ok, the doctors don't want to give me medicine longer then 6 weeks as it is damaging for the liver...that's what they say. I haven't really tried any herbal medicines yet. Maybe I should buy the treatment the sell to dogs!!
Not everyone that has pinworms have symptoms many are asymptomatic but they can still spread them. No, it's not possible they never leave, they hatch, they feed and grow, they mate, lay eggs and die. You're problem could very well be retroinfection where once the eggs hatch they manage to find their way back in. I read that it happens but they don't know how often. Also the worms don't move around with purpose once they hatch and finding their way back inside your colon is just blind luck. Your body can deal with them but it's not able to keep up with reinfection. Aslo retroinfection rapidly increases your parasite load. If I had to guess and thats all it would be because I'm in no way and expert or a parasitologist but I'd venture to guess someone if not everyone esle in your family is asymptomatic and spreading the eggs. I know the parasites can build up resistance to the drugs and by now the drugs probably have a deminished effect. I've seen a few stories about people that struggle with this kind of thing long term but I haven't found any real solid concrete answers and belive me I've tried. I'm a little obsessive and the first 10 pages of links on pretty much every search I could think of concerning pinworms are all purple. I've read everything from pinworms generally die out and go away with good hygiene to they never go away and everything inbetween. I've seen 100 herbal remedies and daily routines to 1 dose of meds and then never another problem.
All I can say for sure is if they go away and come back you've most likely been reinfected over and over. To me, if you've gone 13 weeks or more without them you either dont show symptoms until your parasite load is sufficiently high from retroinfection or you just plain got reinfected. Also I'll say that if you constantly have them the odds are your family does. I know you say they don't have them. It would be EXTREMLY hard to avoid contaminating at least a few surfaces over the course of the years even with the best of hygiene.
As for the stuff for dogs, I've read ppl do it I'm not sure it was effective but imo it's not worth liver damage if thats a risk. I urge you to get some labs for your family to make 100% sure they aren't infected. If that makes you uncomfortable buy a microscope and do them yourself. Many times it takes multiple tests to actually catch the eggs so often 1 test isnt' enough.
Hello. Did you ever get rid of them? Your story is the same as mine - my family show no symptoms, only me. I'm also based in the UK and am desperate. I've had them for five years. Really don't know where to turn now.
Nope, still got them. I've been to the tropical hospital in London today actually and seen a professor again about it!! I can tell you more if you like. I'll send you a message.
I live in usa and they don't give us same drugs, so i Have to go to mexico. to get MEB. have not got it yet But I am trying to control them, we have over counter drug call reese pinworm, it does not kill them only parlyzed them. So have be doing Enema three times a day, I do coconut oil enema and garlic enema with three drops of cloves to kill the eggs, now i heard eat a cigarette. will kill them so I am going to try this. But i heard you get very ill. but anything is better then these, will keep you updated,