The flush mask is reminiscent of an earthworm and is often 10-30 cm long. Rinse mask does not infect from person to person.
You get flush mask by getting eggs from infected soil or poorly rinsed vegetables. The eggs hatch in the small intestine and the small larvae pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and pass through the lungs. It can sometimes make the child cough and difficult to breathe. The larvae pick up in the trachea, the child coughs them up and they are then swallowed into the stomach. When they enter the gut again, they develop and grow into adult worms.
The female, who can live for a year in the baby’s gut, produces many eggs every day that come out with the poop. The eggs mature in the wild after about two weeks and can then live and be contagious for a long time. The eggs can be found in the soil if fertilized with poop. Most washing machine defects in some parts of Europe now come from eggs obtained abroad.
In a human, the dog and cat’s flush mask cannot be fully developed into adult worms. But a human can get flushing worms from the cat or dog’s paw. The larvae can reach blood circulation which can lead to inflammation, called toxocariasis.
Symptoms of flush mask in children
For the most part, the child does not experience any symptoms, but the worm is detected in the poop or sometimes arises from vomiting or excessive coughing. Finding a flush mask is usually an unpleasant experience.
Sometimes the child may have a poor appetite and be tired. The baby can get a stomach ache from the worms, especially if there are many of them. Although it is uncommon, the worms can cause the baby to get a lot of pain in the stomach as in the gut and sometimes block the biliary tract. Then the baby gets more gall dye in the blood which causes the skin to become yellowish, so-called jaundice.
When the larvae pass through the lung, they can cause the child to cough and difficulty breathing. If the lungs are x-rayed, the doctor can see changes in the lung as in the case of pneumonia. It is called allergic pneumonia.
How is the diagnosis made?
If a long mask has been found in the stool or in cough and describes it, it is sufficient for the doctor to be able to diagnose. If you have not seen any mask, but if the doctor suspects that the child has a flush mask, the child may submit a poop test which is then examined to see if there are worm eggs in it. They are easy to see in a microscope.
While the flushing worms are in the larval stage, for example as they pass through the lungs, there is more of a particular kind of white blood cell in the blood, which is a sign of an allergic reaction. Therefore, the child may need to have blood tests to make the diagnosis easier.
Treatment of flush mask in children
The rinse mask is effectively treated with the drug Vermox for a few days. After that, all the larvae and worms have disappeared. The child can meet other children and adults and be in childcare or school as usual during treatment time.