Threadworm

Threadworms are small, thin, white worms between 2mm and 13mm long. They look like cotton threads and live in your bowel (gut). Strict hygiene measures (washing and cleaning) can help clear up a threadworm infection and reduce the likelihood of reinfection. To treat threadworms successfully, all household members must be treated, even if they don't have any symptoms.

Threadworms are spread from human to human. They are not carried by animals so you can't get them from your pets. Threadworms are spread easily within families/whānau, early childhood centres, schools and camps. If one person in your family/whānau has threadworms, others probably do too.

• Most people get threadworms by swallowing the worm's eggs.
• Threadworms leave your gut at night and lay eggs on the skin around your anus (bottom). The eggs can get onto your hands or under your fingernails through scratching the itchy area or because of poor handwashing after using the toilet/whare paku.
• You can pass the eggs on to an uninfected person, eg, through food/kai handling.
• Threadworm eggs can also get onto carpets, bed linen, towels, flannels and into household dust and, in this way, they are passed from person to person.
• It may be between 2 and 6 weeks after contact with a source of infection before the life-cycle is complete and eggs are laid in the newly infected person.

Threadworms are spread from human to human. They are host-specific, which means that animals do not infect humans, so you cannot get threadworms from your pets.

The most common sign of threadworms is itching around your anus (bottom), which is worse at night. This is because the worms are most active at night. In some instances, the worms can be seen in your stool (poo) or on toilet paper. Other signs include bedwetting, restless sleep, loss of appetite and irritability. Many people with a threadworm infection have no symptoms.

The most obvious way an infection is diagnosed is if the threadworms can be seen in your stool (poo) or on toilet paper. But, if this is not the case, your doctor may ask you to do a sticky tape test.

To do this you press some see-through tape on to the skin around your anus (bottom) first thing in the morning, before wiping or bathing. You then place the tape on a glass slide or put it in a specimen container. The tape is then sent to the laboratory to be looked at under a microscope to see if any threadworm eggs are stuck to it.

In most cases, a threadworm infection can be treated with strict hygiene measures (washing and cleaning). The hygiene measures also prevent threadworms from spreading and reduce the likelihood of reinfection. Medicine to treat a threadworm infection can be bought over the counter from your local pharmacy or prescribed by your healthcare provider (doctor/GP or nurse).

Hygiene measures

Follow good hygiene practice to prevent threadworms or stop spreading them to others:

• wash your hands carefully and often
• avoid scratching around your bottom
• keep your fingernails short
• wash your clothes and bedding regularly
• bathe and change your underwear every day
• avoid sharing a bathtub or face cloths
• vacuum your carpets often.

Medicine

You can buy worm medicine such as mebendazole from your pharmacy. This medicine will kill the worms in your gut but will not kill the eggs that have been laid around your bottom. Eggs can survive for up to 2 weeks outside your body on underwear or bedding, and in dust, so proper hygiene measures are important.

• All household members, including adults and those without symptoms, should be treated with worm medicine at the same time.
• It is recommended you take 2 doses of mebendazole – one dose initially and another dose 2 weeks later.
• After you take each dose, wash your underwear and bed linen, and vacuum your carpets.
• Read more about mebendazole.

Apps reviewed by Healthify

You may find it useful to look at some Self-management and healthy living apps.

You don't need to take worm medicine to prevent threadworm. Worm medicine should only be used if someone in your home has threadworm. All household members should be treated at the same time. Follow the good hygiene steps above to help prevent threadworm infection.

In most cases, you won’t need to see your GP. However, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding and have threadworms, or if your child is under 2 years old and has threadworms, you should see your GP. This is because the recommended treatment in these circumstances is usually different from that recommended for most other people.