Worm Infections

Common worms enter our body through 2 main ways:
1. contamination of food by worm eggs
2. penetration of our skin by worm larvae

The insidence of worm infection varies in different countries from as high as 90% to as low as 5%. Insidence tends to be higher in areas where farming is widespread and untreated sewage is used as fertilizers.

Children are particularly easy targets for common worm infections as being active, they are outdoors most of the time.

In Malaysia. the most common worm infection is whipworm followed by roundworm, hookworm, threadworm, and strongyloides stercoralis. Whipworm is also one of the most difficult to kill.

Because the soil conditions for breeding of these common worm eggs (except pinworm) are rather similar, often patient is infected with more than one type of worm at the same time. Therefore the deworming medicine chosen should preferably be one that can kill all 5 types of common worms. In this case, consulting your doctor is suggested.