The story of how infection occurs lamblia, you need to start with the characteristics of the simplest microorganisms. The causative agent of infection are microscopic parasites that affect the small intestine of a human, mammalian animals and birds. Invasive can be and saury, any other sea fish. Flagellae do not migrate through internal systems, their life cycle is primitively simple. Whatever the source of infection, in some cases, giardiasis ends spontaneously, but there are precedents when the defeat of Giardia begins to take a long chronic character. Giardiasis can be infected everywhere: in developed countries and in countries with a low sanitary and hygienic culture.
To date, infection with the simplest flagellum microorganisms in Russia is quite common. Official statistics indicate that 1000 thousand healthy people have one infected patient. Two-thirds of those infected are teenagers under the age of 14 years. The incidence is high at the age of one to six years. This fact is due to several reasons:
- Babies are infected with lamblia because of reduced immunity.
- Boys and girls have a high level of parietal digestion( giardias, parasitizing the walls of the small intestine mucosa, they feed on products of parietal digestion).
- It is the children of preschool age who have a low level of hygiene skills. They like to gnaw their nails, do not always wash their hands after toilet or street visits, they can drink unboiled tap water.
Since giardiasis in many patients is asymptomatic, it is not possible to identify early stages. It is noticed that outbreaks of disease always occur in the spring-summer months of the year, this is due to the fact that during this period the most favorable conditions for the survival of cysts of parasites are created. To date, giardiasis has infected about 10% of the world's total population, recently there have been more cases of infection of infants from 1-3 months, boys at this age are sick more often than girls. But since the age of ten, the picture has changed dramatically. The female population of the earth suffers much from the described invasion.
Sources of infection with Giardiasis
Specialists, responding to the question of how the infection occurs with protozoa, pay attention to one single fact. The main source of danger is a sick person. It is within his body that cysts mature. They, together with the feces, are released outward on the twelfth day of infection, but over time the process of reproduction of cysts slows down, subsides, and then again intensifies. It is this wave-like course of the infection that sometimes prevents the diagnosis. On average, all patients with lambliasis reproduce up to 23 million cysts of lamblia a year. How can they get infected? Transmission paths four:
- Fecal-oral.
- Waterway.
- Contact-household.
- Nutritional.
Fecal-oral route of infection with lambs
Features of the fecal-oral route of infection lie in the features of the lamblia life cycle. The mechanism of infection is fairly simple. Cysts lamblia, getting into the stomach, do not die there, they are easily together with partially digested food penetrate into the duodenum and there, under the action of bile, their shell is destroyed. From one cyst, two trophozoites are obtained - the simplest parasite having a pear-shaped form. Trophozoites settle on the walls of the small intestine mucosa and feed on partially digested food. Trophozoites are reproduced by the method of longitudinal division, in the course of their vital activity they are able to descend into the large intestine, and already there to turn into cysts. Cysts go out with the feces. In the external environment, they live for two weeks, in water the viability of cysts increases to two months. Infection occurs at a time when the loblia cysts are clinging to the hands, and from there they are transferred to the mouth. This method of penetration is considered the most common among adult patients.
Lamblis in water
The waterway for the transmission of lamblia is common in countries with a temperate climate. To infect the simplest parasites it is possible, having drunk tap water, having bathed in pool. Dangerous are swimming in lakes and rivers. Epidemiological outbreaks occur when water flows into which drinking water is contained, effluents from the soil or animal excrement are poured. Strong outbursts of giardiasis occur after accidents at the wastewater treatment plant.
Infection is fixed if 10 cysts enter the intestine. If smaller amounts enter the intestine, the risk of contracting giardiasis is 10%.In order to understand how you can catch lamblia by water, it's enough to digest some numbers.
- Practically in all open reservoirs there are from 4 to 30 cysts per one cubic meter( 1000 liters).
- In public recreation areas in the summer period from 2 to 10 cysts per cubic meter of soil are identified.
- In untreated wastewater, up to 1100 cysts are present in one liter.
That's why water is considered the most dangerous environment, capable of providing the body with parasites.
How often are children infected with Giardiasis?
Contact-household way is considered the main among children. The transmission of parasites is carried out through dirty hands and objects to which they have touched. In the northern capital alone, up to 35% of infected babies were found in kindergartens. When surface washings were carried out, cysts were found on the door handles of game rooms and toilets, on hands, pots, toys. The main "supplier" of cysts can be considered as children's sandboxes, in rural areas the main subject of infection is soil fertilized with manure.
Food path of infection with lamblia also takes place. Cysts with food fall into the mouth if the sanitary-hygienic regime is completely ignored, if one of us does not wash vegetables and fruits( bananas) before consumption, if flies or cockroaches frequently sit on washed products.
When self-healing within two months after recovery, the patient develops a certain immunity, so repeated infection with protozoa flagellated microorganisms is possible only after six months after the first episode of the disease. If infection occurs at a time when the child or an adult has reduced immunity, giardiasis easily becomes chronic. In children, the disease is more severe than in adults, the symptoms appear brighter and more intense. Therefore, parents simply have to learn how infection occurs lamblia, where you can get infected, how the infection is transmitted from person to person. Note! From a cat, any other domestic animal, giardias are not transferred.
An important aspect of preventing infection with Giardiasis is prevention. It consists in strict observance of rules of personal hygiene and storage of products. When using water from open sources, it is necessary to boil it not only before consumption, but also to wash vegetables and fruits. The public is also obliged to take certain measures to prevent infection. They consist in the device of the water drain, in clearing of drains, in prevention of hit of sewage in nearby reservoirs and their protection.