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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffA tapeworm infection starts after ingestion of tapeworm eggs or larvae.
- Ingestion of eggs. If you eat food or drink water contaminated with feces from a person or animal with tapeworm, you ingest microscopic tapeworm eggs. For example, a pig infected with tapeworm will pass tapeworm eggs in its feces, which gets into the soil. If this same soil comes in contact with a food or water source, it becomes contaminated. You can then be infected when you eat or drink something from the contaminated source. Once inside your intestines, the eggs develop into larvae. At this stage, the larvae become mobile. If they migrate out of your intestines, they form cysts in other tissues, such as your lungs, central nervous system or liver.
- Ingestion of larvae cysts in meat or muscle tissue. When an animal has a tapeworm infection, it has tapeworm larvae in its muscle tissue. If you eat raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal, you ingest the larvae, which then develop into adult tapeworms in your intestines. Adult tapeworms can measure up to 50 feet (15.2 meters) long and can survive as long as 20 years in a host. Some tapeworms attach themselves to the walls of the intestines, where they cause irritation or mild inflammation, while others may pass through to your stool and exit your body.
References
- King CH, et al. Cestodes (tapeworms). In: Mandell GL, et al. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?about=true&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06839-3..X0001-X--TOP&isbn=978-0-443-06839-3&uniqId=230100505-57. Accessed Nov. 15, 2011.
- White AC Jr., et al. Cestodes. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2011. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/191371208-2/0/1492/0.html#. Accessed Nov. 16, 2011.
- Craig P, et al. Intestinal cestodes. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases. 2007;20:524.
- Leder K, et al. Intestinal tapeworms. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 16, 2011.
- White AC Jr. Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of cysticercosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 16, 2011.
- White AC Jr. Treatment of cysticercosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 16, 2011.
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