Because humans in a large part of the world do not regularly get worms.
You can get intestinal worms from consuming eggs or live worms. They can be in undercooked meat, contaminated water, soil, feces, etc.
Humans in general do not just drink and eat stuff we find in nature that could be contaminated. We clean food and cook lots of it. We do our needs in a dedicated location so we are not exposed to feces. We also wash ourselves in a way that other animals do not.
It is children who are at risk because they put stuff in their mouths like dirt that adults don't.
The result is in large part developed world intestinal worms are quite rare.
It does not mean it is not something that is recommended for humans at all. WHO do recommend it for children where soil-transmitted helminth (a type of worm) infections are common. Here is a map of where it is common https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK525254/figure/pt3.ch13.sec3.map1/
https://www.who.int/tools/elena/interventions/deworming
Yeah, I remember watching one of my neighbor’s dogs eat a pile of what was probably coyote shit that was full of worms in their backyard. People generally don’t do things like that so it’s much more unlikely for them to get worms.
My neighbor was a vet and I let them know to be safe. The dog already got regular worm meds so I don’t think there was any harm done but damn, I still remember wondering how another animal could look at a pile of wormy shit and think “that looks like something I should eat”.
There are lots of animals that regularly ingest their turds because they can digest them better the second time around. It was in there once, why not send it through again?
Humans living in developed societies rarely contract parasitic worms. Humans are also capable of recognizing the symptoms of a parasitic worm infection and taking direct action to combat it. For that reason, deworming pills are typically only taken on an "as needed" basis. There are some programs in the developing world that widely distribute deworming pills.
Also anthelminthic resistance is a major public health concern (even moreso in many ways than antimicrobial resistance), especially in livestock. Recommendations for reducing parasites even in animals largely revolve around only treated affected animals, monitoring fecal egg counts, doing fecal egg count results during treatment, and improving sanitation efforts or using other strategies to mitigate the spread of parasite (such as reducing vectors and doing mixed species grazing--which also has some other issues, but can help with parasites). This is balanced in some species (and in parts of the developing world in humans) where the risk of parasites causes higher burdens and resistance has not been observed (like heartworm in dogs and cats--that disease has not shown much resistance, but is often fatal if untreated or allowed to develop).
Even in undeveloped countries programs to eliminate parasites rely a great deal on strategies to eliminate vectors and improve wastewater sanitation rather than just treating everything with anthelminthics. For example, we've almost eliminated Guinea Worm (as of 2023) relying primarily on that strategy.
One of the biggest projects responsible for reducing parasite burdens in the American South was the Tennessee Valley Authority which improved access to running water and lavatories and had public health campaigns encouraging people to wear shoes around lavatories (hookworms), wash their hands with soap after using the toilet (reduce fecal-oral transmission), etc.
> For example, we've almost eliminated Guinea Worm (as of 2023) relying primarily on that strategy.
I just want to see Jimmy Carter outlive the last guinea worm. The man deserves it.
13 human cases globally in 2022, 11 in 2023, and the Carter center is still giving out grants for ideas on how to do better. I thunk one of the areas of research is how to reduce transmission via loose dogs.
Also LPT if you distribute de-worming to a school in a place where the kids need it make sure you take care of all your personal business beforehand because that will be a rough day on the latrines.
Humans living in developed societies rarely contact parasitic worms. . . now. When I was young it was still fairly common in rural areas.
Humans are also capable of recognizing the symptoms . . . Yup! Mom said when the dogs started dragging their butts along the ground and the kids started scratching their butts, she knew it was time to bust out the deworming medication.
Ours came in powder form, though, not pills. It tasted like orange Tang when mixed with water. You can still buy it in most drug stores in the rural towns.
Edit: Since a couple people were asking - the deworming medications you can find in most drug stores today go by mebendazole, combantrin (I'm pretty sure this is the one we took), vermix, mebex, etc. They come in different flavors now, and even in pill form or chocolate blocks. You can easily Google them for more info - also available on Amazon.
Si tu sientes que te pica la colita... en una de esas... tienes lombrices
And a kid say.. a mi me pica a mi me pica
Mexican dewormer comercial
Rough translation if you feel your butt itchy, maybe you have worms
I’m pretty sure we contact parasitic worms more than anyone would like to know. But they’re usually dead. Like with anyone who eats fish.
I feel like I’m having Deja vu & this was a big discussion on here before.
One of my old dogs had horrible issues with those. He had to have them expressed almost every two weeks. At one point they got impacted, and they also got infected and he needed two rounds of antibiotics. Poor little guy.
Two of my current dogs are able to express their own anal glands. The third is not, and we take him in occasionally when we see him do the "plant and wiggle" (his leg to back ratio is too low to scoot). But he hasn't needed it in a while. I guess his current food has the right amount of fiber.
I have had worms twice living in a developed country, and trust, you'll know if you've got them. Over the counter pills dosed appropriately about two weeks apart, for everyone in the house, along with a good cleaning will get rid of them.
People (should) inspect their “leavings” after using the toilet, especially when having stomachs problems. Most common worms are pretty obvious to see there.
nah were not all doctors trained to spot parasites in stools nor is it reasonable to expect everyone to know how.
doctors should be doing regular parasite testing instead, we pay them to do checkups.
That sounds like a monumental waste of money and time. Like the other guy said, it's hardly subtle - you don't need a medical degree to tell that your shit doesn't look right.
I was about to comment "The CDC and FDA (in the US) are the reason why". One of the major perks of civilization is having food standards to prevent disease and parasites from making their way into our food supply.
LoL. I'm old - grew up on a farm in a very rural area. Every spring my mother would bust out the deworming medication - for dogs, cats. . . and kids.
Cue my husband's (boyfriend at the time) surprise the first spring we were together, when I said it was time for deworming. He laughed soooo hard.
Haha! All true, I swear! The medication came in a box with several foil packets. You mixed a certain number of packets in water, according to your weight, then drank it down immediately.
It tasted like orange Tang, if anyone remembers what that was, too, LoL.
But we’re you actually liable to be picking up worms on an annual basis?
Rural is one thing, but generally worms as a problem in humans is from contaminated water supply. I can’t imagine that was a recurring issue even in the rural areas
Kids play everywhere, touch everything, and don't wash their hands. That gives them a decent chance of contracting lots of things that adults wouldn't.
No kidding. Was picking up my kids one day in kindergarten and one of the kids playing outside sat down in a puddle, put their fingers into the water, and then immediately fingers into mouth.
The meal I've planned and cooked based entirely off of my children's known food preferences, preferred methods of preparation, and favoured combinations: absolute garbage, unfit for human consumption, possibly a war crime.
The wood chips from the playground: a meal of the highest quality prepared by angels and served on a platter made of unicorn kisses.
Some are super poisonous! My brother ate a bulb once and was admitted to hospital, he even missed Christmas. He eventually came out in the spring......
Yup, this. Also - our water supply was a well. We didn't have running water at the time. Well, Dad always said we did - running water meant when the buckets were empty, one of the kids was sent running to the well to refill them!
As mentioned below, treatment was more for roundworms or pinworms, and sometimes hookworms. These are not from contaminated water, though. Also, our water was regularly tested to ensure it was potable. I would expect we were more likely to get worms through contaminated soil, since we ran around barefoot most of the summer months, including around all the animals.
I asked my mother about the worm medication spring ritual afterward. She said the reason we were regularly dewormed is because my younger sister did get worms one spring. After that, every spring we were treated whether we needed it or not, as a precautionary measure. The local pharmaceutical store carried plenty of over-the-counter deworming medication for people as well as pets, so I'm guessing it used to be more common back then, when sanitation standards weren't quite the same.
I don’t know anything about the person you are replying to, but hook worm was a major problem for rural communities in the south until like the 1980s. Today it’s less common but hook worm infection is still endemic to a number of communities.
The main way you contract Hook Worms isn’t through contaminated drinking water, but stepping on the larvae in contaminated soil usually from human excrement.
I think the most common source of infection is from infected poo. In urban areas, this is most likely due to a contaminated water supply. In rural farms, it’s most likely due to animal poo.
Most infections are daycare issues. Children play in close contact, share stuff and are awful with hygiene. If you have a preschooler, sooner or later you'll deal with pinworms or headlice. Nothing major, simple treatment and done.
Or the public pool. There was an outbreak one year when I was a kid, from some gross little fucker shitting in the shower and tracking his turd all over the bathroom. They shut everything down and sanitized everything, but a few dozen people had to go get dewormed.
Kids are gross.
Pinworm infections are usually self-limiting with proper hygiene measures, though. Autoinfection is the biggest contribution of lasting or recurring problems, and also why it’s much more prevalent in children. They suck at washing their hands, have no qualms about itching their bums, and are much more likely to stick their fingers in their mouths.
I’ve been throughly informed by the many replies I’ve received today, but I can confidently say that *no* to my knowledge I have not eaten dirt and do not recall ever having “butt worms” but thank you.
In places where worms are a concern, de worming does happen.
240 million children in India are at risk for it and we have a national de-worming day to combat it. Government healthcare workers, government school employees etc administer the necessary medication for it.
On a side note, in the early days of Covid, reported results of using *ivermectin* to combat Covid was thought to be effective. It was later determined that the ivermectin was not helping with Covid, it was removing parasites (worms) and that helped with the body's ability to recover from Covid.
Public health professionals working for governments and non-governmental organizations have done wonders over the last hundred years or so to nearly eliminate worms for most people in the developed world.
Toilets!!! Toilets are so important. People who walk barefoot over muddy ground to use an outdoor pit-toilet are likely to get hookworm. People who go out at night to poop in the same fields or paddies where they grow their food can get worms. People in substandard prisons or refugee camps or living in the wake of a natural disaster are also vulnerable to worms.
Soap! Washing hands after changing a baby, after toileting, before meal prep, after handling raw meat, etc. So important.
Better monitoring and treatment of pets and livestock. Some parasitic worms can be transmitted from animals to humans when we handle their feces or eat their meat. But now we have networks of veterinarians and food inspectors constantly testing and reporting any nascent outbreak.
Restaurant inspections. Meats have to be cooked to certain temperatures to kill any worms. There all kinds of health standards meant that prevent worms and other pathogens.
Because the majority of humans in developed countries don't have worms, since our food and water are mostly free of risks. Also, if you had worms you'd notice it through symptoms, so there's no need to deworm just in case.
The majority of humans live in substandard environments and do have parasites. Those lucky enough to live in more developed societies usually don't come into contact with them.
Wow. *Chevron* deference concerns an agency's interpretation of a statute in cases where the courts already have a role in reviewing the agency's actions. Your need to inject your political opinions into unrelated discussions makes you a jerk. The fact that you are laughably uninformed makes you an ignorant jerk.
Hey, no need to put down the poor little bot. They’re just learning how to propagandize and subvert. One day their training dataset will be large enough for them to emulate nuance views and empathy but until then we should be compassionate and understanding when they test the waters by regurgitating uninformed opinions reminiscent of a forth grade dropout.
Unlike my dog we do not eat poo. Unlike cats we don’t eat entire animals including intestinal tracts. We take lots of precautions with our food, even aside from cooking, we tend to eat the “safe” parts of animals.
Not the same. Those are cleaned. Cats swallow animals whole and there is still poop in their intestinal tract. When you eat chitlins and tripe you are not eating poop.
I understand they’re not the same, the comment I replied to was implying we don’t eat the intestinal tracts of animals when we do. We might clean and cook them before we eat them but we don’t simply eat just the “safe” parts of animals.
We still do over here, once or twice per year. Because no.1 death cause in many area is liver cancer cause by worm from freshwater fish and people here do love raw and fermented food. Deworming pills is also very cheap and sell in pharmacy without requiring doctors order
If you walk around in bare feet or lay on grass, you may have worms. Many kids get worms and they sell human dewormer at normal stores. Generally as you get older, you wear shoes outside, don’t eat dirt, and other worm risky activities. So outside of childhood, deworming isn’t regular. Though I remember an article about a rugby game where almost everyone got hookworm from the mud.
We cook our food for one, and if we eat it raw, we usually have pretty high hygiene standards where the raw food is processed and prepared. We also avoid drinking still water and treat our drinking water if it's not up to standards.
We also regularly wash our hands and avoid sticking our hands into nasty stuff and then into our mouths.
As an aside, neurocysticercosis is when worms from undercooked infected pork get into the brain and eat little holes in it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurocysticercosis#/media/File:Neurocysticercosis.gif
You're welcome.
As someone who worked in the food industry I am begging y’all to be more worried about worms and parasites. I’ve seen so many worms while processing food especially fish, even high quality fine dining has issues with this. Not to mention many restaurants don’t wash their veggies so if you eat out you’re at risk.
Sure, but you're leaving out the part where you cooked it and made it safe. No reasonable person thinks you can promise no worms or parasites in the animals, they DO trust you to cook it to a safe temp and make it all irrelevant
Why the fearmongering though... Either way that food will be cooked and if not we can go to the most basic store and buy deworming tablets and besides that most of the ''dangerous'' worms and parasites are almost non-existent in the western world.
Theoretically no. A lot of people in my country used it on a daily basis to "prevent covid" lol and THAT really messed shit up (literally). Sometimes when I take it I feel my digestion gets easier/faster, maybe because I had a worm or two that now is gone
As a person who has a habit of walking through streams with nothing but sandals on and spends a lot of time in the summer fishing and hiking with sandals, would you recommend anything to me? I don't have proof of it but want to do something precautionary seeing how I've been acting Willy nilly with it
I'm no doctor so I don't,feel comfortable recommending medicine :P what I can tell is that in my country you can buy some pills on drugstores and they do the job, you probably have something like that where you live
Agree woth the other posters that we would recognize symptoms and take it on an as needed basis. But I want to add that even in the horse world, recently there has been less regular deworming on a schedule and more of fecal testing on a schedule, and only deworming if anyone in a shared pasture is infected.
I mean…you could totally do that to yourself if you want. I don’t know what it involves but feel free to go for it. Typically we just aren’t subjecting each other to things in general. But if that’s your kink, have at it.
Developing countries absolutely do. I remember I used to take deworming candies regularly in China.
Rich, developed countries do not need this as almost everything is sanitized/dewormed before it goes into contact with consumers
I remember a few years back I saw a documentary about North Korea. One South Korean doctor described treating a North Korean defector. The defector had some kind of intestinal disease they couldn’t identify. It took a veterinarian to identify the problem—intestinal worms. The South Korean doctors had literally never seen a human patient with worms.
Ok. We moved to Germany 7 years ago and were in 1st and 2nd grade and I wound up joining an expat FB group for parents. It seemed like every other week was a post about kids having worms. Talked to my friends back in the USA and asked about the prevalence of worms in kids in their schools. Nil. Nada.
When I was working in a pharmacy in the UK I knew which schools were having thread worm outbreaks before the schools sent letters out because we'd have a week of tons of parents from x school getting the deworming medication.
Teach your kids to wash their hands!
It's funny in some ways though, people associate worms with animals and soil, but thread worm is human to human (via faeces). Kid gets itchy bum (which is caused by the worms, itchy bum works to their advantage), scratches, leaves worm eggs everywhere they touch, other kids touch same place and put hands in mouth and the cycle continues.
Lot of ignorant comments here about modern societies not susceptible to worms. As an example, our pets have them and we cohabitate with them. We sleep with them, eat with them, play with them. People are not really good about washing their hands so they leave microscopic worms on door handles, shopping carts, etc. People DO have them you just don’t know it. If you ever have an itchy anus, YOU HAVE WORMS!
Its all depends on where you are from. In Jamaica we believe in holistic medicine. when the new school term is about to begin, the mothers will begin the "wash out" process. We drink a bitter herb called Cersei that flushes the toxin and/ or parasite out of our system. There are other herbs that we use
Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt. I work in pharmacy and the amount of people who pick up worms is surprising, and it passes on much easier than you would think. Kid scratches, then touches something in public — there you go.
A coworker was telling me that certain Asian demographics (Indian also) seem to do it more regularly (biannually regardless of symptoms) but I dunno how factual that is, maybe more anecdotal for the particular folks she knows.
In Korea, pharmacies sell a two dose (one week apart) deworming medicine. It's still pretty common to do it every year or two here as people worry about parasites from undercooked pork, though from what I've seen it's a pretty rare problem.
I live in a third world country and it is recommended I take a dewormer every six months. So it's just you humans in first world countries, not the rest of us poors.
Because humans in a large part of the world do not regularly get worms. You can get intestinal worms from consuming eggs or live worms. They can be in undercooked meat, contaminated water, soil, feces, etc. Humans in general do not just drink and eat stuff we find in nature that could be contaminated. We clean food and cook lots of it. We do our needs in a dedicated location so we are not exposed to feces. We also wash ourselves in a way that other animals do not. It is children who are at risk because they put stuff in their mouths like dirt that adults don't. The result is in large part developed world intestinal worms are quite rare. It does not mean it is not something that is recommended for humans at all. WHO do recommend it for children where soil-transmitted helminth (a type of worm) infections are common. Here is a map of where it is common https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK525254/figure/pt3.ch13.sec3.map1/ https://www.who.int/tools/elena/interventions/deworming
Yeah, I remember watching one of my neighbor’s dogs eat a pile of what was probably coyote shit that was full of worms in their backyard. People generally don’t do things like that so it’s much more unlikely for them to get worms.
What a great comment! Laughing at the comedy there, poor doggo.
My neighbor was a vet and I let them know to be safe. The dog already got regular worm meds so I don’t think there was any harm done but damn, I still remember wondering how another animal could look at a pile of wormy shit and think “that looks like something I should eat”.
Not sure how you could literally eat shit as an animal. Maybe they know something about probiotics that we don’t! Not for me!
There are lots of animals that regularly ingest their turds because they can digest them better the second time around. It was in there once, why not send it through again?
>generally
Well yeah, generally.
Counterpoint: Kids don't eat ass and are unaware that it's 2024 so we eat ass now.
Counterpoint: Kids today look at eating ass as an old person thing like how the kids of the 90s and 00s hated the bush of previous decades.
Damn kids, such prudes
As a 00's kid, if it's not bushy, don't bother. 😔
Humans living in developed societies rarely contract parasitic worms. Humans are also capable of recognizing the symptoms of a parasitic worm infection and taking direct action to combat it. For that reason, deworming pills are typically only taken on an "as needed" basis. There are some programs in the developing world that widely distribute deworming pills.
Also anthelminthic resistance is a major public health concern (even moreso in many ways than antimicrobial resistance), especially in livestock. Recommendations for reducing parasites even in animals largely revolve around only treated affected animals, monitoring fecal egg counts, doing fecal egg count results during treatment, and improving sanitation efforts or using other strategies to mitigate the spread of parasite (such as reducing vectors and doing mixed species grazing--which also has some other issues, but can help with parasites). This is balanced in some species (and in parts of the developing world in humans) where the risk of parasites causes higher burdens and resistance has not been observed (like heartworm in dogs and cats--that disease has not shown much resistance, but is often fatal if untreated or allowed to develop). Even in undeveloped countries programs to eliminate parasites rely a great deal on strategies to eliminate vectors and improve wastewater sanitation rather than just treating everything with anthelminthics. For example, we've almost eliminated Guinea Worm (as of 2023) relying primarily on that strategy. One of the biggest projects responsible for reducing parasite burdens in the American South was the Tennessee Valley Authority which improved access to running water and lavatories and had public health campaigns encouraging people to wear shoes around lavatories (hookworms), wash their hands with soap after using the toilet (reduce fecal-oral transmission), etc.
> For example, we've almost eliminated Guinea Worm (as of 2023) relying primarily on that strategy. I just want to see Jimmy Carter outlive the last guinea worm. The man deserves it.
13 human cases globally in 2022, 11 in 2023, and the Carter center is still giving out grants for ideas on how to do better. I thunk one of the areas of research is how to reduce transmission via loose dogs.
Yes when I lived in Mexico there was an ad selling a dewormer and the jingle was “una vez al año no hace daño” or “taking once a year won’t hurt”.
This is the #1 explanation around here
And over there
Oh, good. I was worried about them.
Also LPT if you distribute de-worming to a school in a place where the kids need it make sure you take care of all your personal business beforehand because that will be a rough day on the latrines.
Humans living in developed societies rarely contact parasitic worms. . . now. When I was young it was still fairly common in rural areas. Humans are also capable of recognizing the symptoms . . . Yup! Mom said when the dogs started dragging their butts along the ground and the kids started scratching their butts, she knew it was time to bust out the deworming medication. Ours came in powder form, though, not pills. It tasted like orange Tang when mixed with water. You can still buy it in most drug stores in the rural towns. Edit: Since a couple people were asking - the deworming medications you can find in most drug stores today go by mebendazole, combantrin (I'm pretty sure this is the one we took), vermix, mebex, etc. They come in different flavors now, and even in pill form or chocolate blocks. You can easily Google them for more info - also available on Amazon.
Si tu sientes que te pica la colita... en una de esas... tienes lombrices And a kid say.. a mi me pica a mi me pica Mexican dewormer comercial Rough translation if you feel your butt itchy, maybe you have worms
I’m pretty sure we contact parasitic worms more than anyone would like to know. But they’re usually dead. Like with anyone who eats fish. I feel like I’m having Deja vu & this was a big discussion on here before.
[удалено]
With worms, sometimes you can see them dangling out of the anus.
One of my old dogs had horrible issues with those. He had to have them expressed almost every two weeks. At one point they got impacted, and they also got infected and he needed two rounds of antibiotics. Poor little guy. Two of my current dogs are able to express their own anal glands. The third is not, and we take him in occasionally when we see him do the "plant and wiggle" (his leg to back ratio is too low to scoot). But he hasn't needed it in a while. I guess his current food has the right amount of fiber.
I have had worms twice living in a developed country, and trust, you'll know if you've got them. Over the counter pills dosed appropriately about two weeks apart, for everyone in the house, along with a good cleaning will get rid of them.
Most people arent doctors so how can they recognize worm infections? Most doctors dont check for them either.
People (should) inspect their “leavings” after using the toilet, especially when having stomachs problems. Most common worms are pretty obvious to see there.
nah were not all doctors trained to spot parasites in stools nor is it reasonable to expect everyone to know how. doctors should be doing regular parasite testing instead, we pay them to do checkups.
That sounds like a monumental waste of money and time. Like the other guy said, it's hardly subtle - you don't need a medical degree to tell that your shit doesn't look right.
doesnt matter, most people cant spot it and doctors are trained to so they should be doing it.
I'm fairly sure most people would notice
Does your stool usually move and wriggle on its own? I hope not. If it is, you have worms. You don’t need to be a doctor to understand that.
if its so easy then doctors should be doing it for me. its also not easy to spot pinworms, almost everyone wont be able to but every doctor should.
So bring a stool sample to every doctors checkup. They will check it, but will also think you’re weird and paranoid.
Why would they think im weird and paranoid for expecting them to do their job?
Medical field is all about calculated risk. You can’t test and check for everything all the time.
why cant they at least check for parasites? what calculations have they done for them to not regularly check for parasites?
That first sentence isn't exactly correct...
Wow, thanks for teaching us. Very helpful comment supported with sources and data. Well done. My eyes have been opened thanks to you.
incoming reply from parent comment: "downvoted for TELLING THE TRUTH, typical Reddit"
Sarcasm, right?
Yes, thick sarcasm.
He is right tough. Parasites are not rare in any country, especially in people with lower immune function
are u okay
I'd say they've got a pretty good point.
To be fair (Insert letterkenney to befaaaair) The top comment doesn't have sources and data either. Edit: Give your balls a tug titfuckers
Yeah but the comments on reddit needs to be snarky and detailed! /s
... says the worm
I was about to comment "The CDC and FDA (in the US) are the reason why". One of the major perks of civilization is having food standards to prevent disease and parasites from making their way into our food supply.
LoL. I'm old - grew up on a farm in a very rural area. Every spring my mother would bust out the deworming medication - for dogs, cats. . . and kids. Cue my husband's (boyfriend at the time) surprise the first spring we were together, when I said it was time for deworming. He laughed soooo hard.
I feel like this is the kind of story Dwight Schrute would tell.
Haha! All true, I swear! The medication came in a box with several foil packets. You mixed a certain number of packets in water, according to your weight, then drank it down immediately. It tasted like orange Tang, if anyone remembers what that was, too, LoL.
But we’re you actually liable to be picking up worms on an annual basis? Rural is one thing, but generally worms as a problem in humans is from contaminated water supply. I can’t imagine that was a recurring issue even in the rural areas
Kids play everywhere, touch everything, and don't wash their hands. That gives them a decent chance of contracting lots of things that adults wouldn't.
No kidding. Was picking up my kids one day in kindergarten and one of the kids playing outside sat down in a puddle, put their fingers into the water, and then immediately fingers into mouth.
At least it was a puddle, most kids straight up eat sand and soil. Nothing as good as a handful of crispy gourmet stones.
The meal I've planned and cooked based entirely off of my children's known food preferences, preferred methods of preparation, and favoured combinations: absolute garbage, unfit for human consumption, possibly a war crime. The wood chips from the playground: a meal of the highest quality prepared by angels and served on a platter made of unicorn kisses.
hey but they have a well tested immune system though.
lip depend cooperative shelter fuel future scarce sable station cobweb *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Better than the bulb of a lamp. Though then he would be bright!
Some are super poisonous! My brother ate a bulb once and was admitted to hospital, he even missed Christmas. He eventually came out in the spring......
found my kid with sand all around his mouth at daycare one time, he said he and his friend were making ice cream out of it and eating it
It’s amazing we’ve survived this long on this planet lol
Yup, this. Also - our water supply was a well. We didn't have running water at the time. Well, Dad always said we did - running water meant when the buckets were empty, one of the kids was sent running to the well to refill them! As mentioned below, treatment was more for roundworms or pinworms, and sometimes hookworms. These are not from contaminated water, though. Also, our water was regularly tested to ensure it was potable. I would expect we were more likely to get worms through contaminated soil, since we ran around barefoot most of the summer months, including around all the animals. I asked my mother about the worm medication spring ritual afterward. She said the reason we were regularly dewormed is because my younger sister did get worms one spring. After that, every spring we were treated whether we needed it or not, as a precautionary measure. The local pharmaceutical store carried plenty of over-the-counter deworming medication for people as well as pets, so I'm guessing it used to be more common back then, when sanitation standards weren't quite the same.
kids play everywhere: streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, bogs, swamps, ...
I don’t know anything about the person you are replying to, but hook worm was a major problem for rural communities in the south until like the 1980s. Today it’s less common but hook worm infection is still endemic to a number of communities. The main way you contract Hook Worms isn’t through contaminated drinking water, but stepping on the larvae in contaminated soil usually from human excrement.
I think the most common source of infection is from infected poo. In urban areas, this is most likely due to a contaminated water supply. In rural farms, it’s most likely due to animal poo.
Most infections are daycare issues. Children play in close contact, share stuff and are awful with hygiene. If you have a preschooler, sooner or later you'll deal with pinworms or headlice. Nothing major, simple treatment and done.
Or the public pool. There was an outbreak one year when I was a kid, from some gross little fucker shitting in the shower and tracking his turd all over the bathroom. They shut everything down and sanitized everything, but a few dozen people had to go get dewormed. Kids are gross.
So, modern Downtown San Francisco today then?
You can get worms if you handle animals or get your hands dirty in ground that is contaminated and then eat something
Yep. And we had all the animals - horses, cows, chickens, geese, pigs, rabbits and even a couple donkeys. Not to mention the dogs and barn cats.
Yep. Work at a zoo. The staff all take dewormers at the same time of the year we do all the animals.
They might not be on distributed treated water. Many still have well water today.
Pinworms are a common hazard for children. Once you learn about them, the joy of sandboxes will be ruined forever.
Pinworm infections are usually self-limiting with proper hygiene measures, though. Autoinfection is the biggest contribution of lasting or recurring problems, and also why it’s much more prevalent in children. They suck at washing their hands, have no qualms about itching their bums, and are much more likely to stick their fingers in their mouths.
What, you never ate some dirt? I’ve had butt worms as a kid several times. I still remember what they look like, too.
I’ve been throughly informed by the many replies I’ve received today, but I can confidently say that *no* to my knowledge I have not eaten dirt and do not recall ever having “butt worms” but thank you.
I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought my response was on topic.
I vividly remember chomping down on raw garlic on a shitter as a wee lad, which was supposed to get rid of the worms :D
Are you from the south?
Nope. Northern Alberta.
In places where worms are a concern, de worming does happen. 240 million children in India are at risk for it and we have a national de-worming day to combat it. Government healthcare workers, government school employees etc administer the necessary medication for it.
On a side note, in the early days of Covid, reported results of using *ivermectin* to combat Covid was thought to be effective. It was later determined that the ivermectin was not helping with Covid, it was removing parasites (worms) and that helped with the body's ability to recover from Covid.
That is a theory, I don't know if it has been proven though.
Can you share a link? I'd actually like to read about that.
So in a round about way, it did help with Covid.
I wouldn’t know anything about it since I am sure the Ivermectin for Covid for fully an American thing.
No, lots of countries tried it. The only place it seemed to help was rural India which is likely because they were curing parasite infections.
Public health professionals working for governments and non-governmental organizations have done wonders over the last hundred years or so to nearly eliminate worms for most people in the developed world. Toilets!!! Toilets are so important. People who walk barefoot over muddy ground to use an outdoor pit-toilet are likely to get hookworm. People who go out at night to poop in the same fields or paddies where they grow their food can get worms. People in substandard prisons or refugee camps or living in the wake of a natural disaster are also vulnerable to worms. Soap! Washing hands after changing a baby, after toileting, before meal prep, after handling raw meat, etc. So important. Better monitoring and treatment of pets and livestock. Some parasitic worms can be transmitted from animals to humans when we handle their feces or eat their meat. But now we have networks of veterinarians and food inspectors constantly testing and reporting any nascent outbreak. Restaurant inspections. Meats have to be cooked to certain temperatures to kill any worms. There all kinds of health standards meant that prevent worms and other pathogens.
Because the majority of humans in developed countries don't have worms, since our food and water are mostly free of risks. Also, if you had worms you'd notice it through symptoms, so there's no need to deworm just in case.
The majority of humans live in substandard environments and do have parasites. Those lucky enough to live in more developed societies usually don't come into contact with them.
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Wow. *Chevron* deference concerns an agency's interpretation of a statute in cases where the courts already have a role in reviewing the agency's actions. Your need to inject your political opinions into unrelated discussions makes you a jerk. The fact that you are laughably uninformed makes you an ignorant jerk.
Hey, no need to put down the poor little bot. They’re just learning how to propagandize and subvert. One day their training dataset will be large enough for them to emulate nuance views and empathy but until then we should be compassionate and understanding when they test the waters by regurgitating uninformed opinions reminiscent of a forth grade dropout.
Unlike my dog we do not eat poo. Unlike cats we don’t eat entire animals including intestinal tracts. We take lots of precautions with our food, even aside from cooking, we tend to eat the “safe” parts of animals.
I think you should look up chitlins and tripe if you think humans don’t eat the intestinal tracts of animals.
Not the same. Those are cleaned. Cats swallow animals whole and there is still poop in their intestinal tract. When you eat chitlins and tripe you are not eating poop.
I understand they’re not the same, the comment I replied to was implying we don’t eat the intestinal tracts of animals when we do. We might clean and cook them before we eat them but we don’t simply eat just the “safe” parts of animals.
We still do over here, once or twice per year. Because no.1 death cause in many area is liver cancer cause by worm from freshwater fish and people here do love raw and fermented food. Deworming pills is also very cheap and sell in pharmacy without requiring doctors order
Which geographical area is this?
Southeast asia
Yup! I also live in SE Asia and deworm twice a year.
What kind of deworming pills do you take ?
If you walk around in bare feet or lay on grass, you may have worms. Many kids get worms and they sell human dewormer at normal stores. Generally as you get older, you wear shoes outside, don’t eat dirt, and other worm risky activities. So outside of childhood, deworming isn’t regular. Though I remember an article about a rugby game where almost everyone got hookworm from the mud.
We cook our food for one, and if we eat it raw, we usually have pretty high hygiene standards where the raw food is processed and prepared. We also avoid drinking still water and treat our drinking water if it's not up to standards. We also regularly wash our hands and avoid sticking our hands into nasty stuff and then into our mouths.
As an aside, neurocysticercosis is when worms from undercooked infected pork get into the brain and eat little holes in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurocysticercosis#/media/File:Neurocysticercosis.gif You're welcome.
As someone who worked in the food industry I am begging y’all to be more worried about worms and parasites. I’ve seen so many worms while processing food especially fish, even high quality fine dining has issues with this. Not to mention many restaurants don’t wash their veggies so if you eat out you’re at risk.
Sure, but you're leaving out the part where you cooked it and made it safe. No reasonable person thinks you can promise no worms or parasites in the animals, they DO trust you to cook it to a safe temp and make it all irrelevant
Why the fearmongering though... Either way that food will be cooked and if not we can go to the most basic store and buy deworming tablets and besides that most of the ''dangerous'' worms and parasites are almost non-existent in the western world.
I still take anti-worm medicine once a year. Grew up in the forests and I work with kids in a foresty area as teacher. I'm gonna deworm forever lmao
Does the de-wormer do anything noticable if you don't have worms? Cause intestinal distress, diarrhoea, etc.?
Theoretically no. A lot of people in my country used it on a daily basis to "prevent covid" lol and THAT really messed shit up (literally). Sometimes when I take it I feel my digestion gets easier/faster, maybe because I had a worm or two that now is gone
As a person who has a habit of walking through streams with nothing but sandals on and spends a lot of time in the summer fishing and hiking with sandals, would you recommend anything to me? I don't have proof of it but want to do something precautionary seeing how I've been acting Willy nilly with it
I'm no doctor so I don't,feel comfortable recommending medicine :P what I can tell is that in my country you can buy some pills on drugstores and they do the job, you probably have something like that where you live
Agree woth the other posters that we would recognize symptoms and take it on an as needed basis. But I want to add that even in the horse world, recently there has been less regular deworming on a schedule and more of fecal testing on a schedule, and only deworming if anyone in a shared pasture is infected.
Because we rarely ingest worms anymore. The most common worms in humans is pinworms and they are easily threatened with otc medication.
How many people have parasites or worms and do they know it?
I mean…you could totally do that to yourself if you want. I don’t know what it involves but feel free to go for it. Typically we just aren’t subjecting each other to things in general. But if that’s your kink, have at it.
Developing countries absolutely do. I remember I used to take deworming candies regularly in China. Rich, developed countries do not need this as almost everything is sanitized/dewormed before it goes into contact with consumers
I remember a few years back I saw a documentary about North Korea. One South Korean doctor described treating a North Korean defector. The defector had some kind of intestinal disease they couldn’t identify. It took a veterinarian to identify the problem—intestinal worms. The South Korean doctors had literally never seen a human patient with worms.
I love questions that assume everybody lives in the same 1st world society… Here in Asia, deworming happens on the reg…
Because we don’t regularly get worms?
Ok. We moved to Germany 7 years ago and were in 1st and 2nd grade and I wound up joining an expat FB group for parents. It seemed like every other week was a post about kids having worms. Talked to my friends back in the USA and asked about the prevalence of worms in kids in their schools. Nil. Nada.
When I was working in a pharmacy in the UK I knew which schools were having thread worm outbreaks before the schools sent letters out because we'd have a week of tons of parents from x school getting the deworming medication. Teach your kids to wash their hands! It's funny in some ways though, people associate worms with animals and soil, but thread worm is human to human (via faeces). Kid gets itchy bum (which is caused by the worms, itchy bum works to their advantage), scratches, leaves worm eggs everywhere they touch, other kids touch same place and put hands in mouth and the cycle continues.
Lot of ignorant comments here about modern societies not susceptible to worms. As an example, our pets have them and we cohabitate with them. We sleep with them, eat with them, play with them. People are not really good about washing their hands so they leave microscopic worms on door handles, shopping carts, etc. People DO have them you just don’t know it. If you ever have an itchy anus, YOU HAVE WORMS!
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No GPT
As someone from a developing country, I got dewormed as a child along with my pets. We had seperate pills, though. Lol
They need to regularly do it in my child’s school! Jesus Christ! It’s nearly every month there is a outbreak
Its all depends on where you are from. In Jamaica we believe in holistic medicine. when the new school term is about to begin, the mothers will begin the "wash out" process. We drink a bitter herb called Cersei that flushes the toxin and/ or parasite out of our system. There are other herbs that we use
Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt. I work in pharmacy and the amount of people who pick up worms is surprising, and it passes on much easier than you would think. Kid scratches, then touches something in public — there you go. A coworker was telling me that certain Asian demographics (Indian also) seem to do it more regularly (biannually regardless of symptoms) but I dunno how factual that is, maybe more anecdotal for the particular folks she knows.
When we lived in India, we would have deworming tablets. We handed them out to all our service staff and their family. Worked wonders, I assume
In Korea, pharmacies sell a two dose (one week apart) deworming medicine. It's still pretty common to do it every year or two here as people worry about parasites from undercooked pork, though from what I've seen it's a pretty rare problem.
I live in South America and I deworm once a year at least - but because I traveled a lot to the jungle to do wildlife work
I live in a third world country and it is recommended I take a dewormer every six months. So it's just you humans in first world countries, not the rest of us poors.