Giardiasis: causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment

Lamblias are single-celled parasites that live in the small intestine of a person. The disease, in which infection occurs, is called lambliasis. The causes of invasion may be different. Any person, regardless of age or sex, is subject to infection. However, before talking about the causes of infection and methods of treatment, you need to understand how lamblia look and how dangerous they are.

Appearance of Giardia and stages of development

Lamblias are a small size (about 0.13 microns) of parasites that can survive and develop in the human body. They were discovered in 1681 by Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek. He studied them, Professor Ljambl, whose surname gave the name to this species. Parasitize Giardia in the small intestine, gallbladder and bile ducts. The study on giardiasis revealed that the cycle of development of these parasites is divided into two stages: vegetative (active) and cystic (rest). At the first stage of the pear-shaped form, lamblia is actively mobile, has 2 cores and 8 flagella, with which it moves. Anterior end of body wide, rounded, caudal (posterior) - pointed. On the surface of the lamblia body, you can notice the sucking disk, due to which it is attached to the epithelial cells of the intestinal wall. In the middle of the body of the parasite, you can see two supporting threads-axostiles, dividing it into two completely identical halves, each of which has a core. The cytoplasm of the lamblia is transparent. The back and tail are covered with a cytoplasmic membrane. In the cystic stage lamblia is oval in shape. The cytoplasm contains a folded flagellate apparatus and 4 nuclei (rarely 2). A study of the lambliosis of liquid or semi-liquid faeces of a sick person showed that sometimes the parasite can be in the intermediate stage of the pre-cyst.

Life cycle of Giardia

1. Cysts enter the human body.
2. They reach the duodenum, where 2 trophysites are formed from each cyst.
3. Reproduction of lamblia occurs in the duodenum or jejunum.
4. When you go to the colon, the next stage begins - cystic.
5. Trophasites and cysts leave the body with feces.

Outside the host's body, only cysts survive.

Giardiasis: Causes

Infection can occur in several ways.

• Nutritional. Infection can occur due to insufficient heat treatment of foods, dirty vegetables or fruits.
• Water. This path is considered the most common, because piped, river and lake water contains a huge amount of lamblia. They die only when boiling.
• Domestic. You can get infected with Giardiasis by interacting with dirty objects of everyday use. It can be toys, dishes, linens and stuff. Children who are accustomed to gnaw nails are at a double risk .

Giardiasis, the causes of which are unwashed or improperly processed foods, are rare. As a rule, they suffer from children. The water route of infection is more common, because the same fruits or vegetables are washed with raw water, so that the protozoans enter the body and lambliasis begins.

The causes of the disease are different, but the symptoms of the disease do not depend on the way the parasite enters the body. However, the clinical picture in patients may also differ, because the disease has several classifications.

Classification of the disease

Lamblias in humans can manifest themselves in several ways, depending on which the classification of the disease is derived:

• Asymptomatic giardiasis (lambliasis);
• Severe disease;
• Intestinal form, manifested by enterocolitis, duodenal disc disease, duodenitis, etc.
• Hepatobiliary, manifested holitsestitom, dyskinesia biliary tract.

Symptoms of acute lambliasis

Pain sensations with giardiasis are not specific, which often makes diagnosis difficult. The most common disease is asymptomatic, but in order to learn how to get rid of Giardia, you need to study the most likely its manifestations.

Giardiasis can occur in acute and chronic form. In the acute course of the disease, which is observed most often in children and lasts a maximum of 7-10 days, vitamin and enzymatic insufficiency develops. As a result, the process of absorption of nutrients by the body is disrupted.

In the acute form of giardiasis, as a rule, there are the following symptoms:

• Frequent constipation or diarrhea;
• Painful sensations in the right hypochondrium or around the navel;
• Frequent causeless increase in body temperature;
• nausea;
• Increased fatigue;
• Enlarged spleen, lymph nodes, liver;
• Coughing attacks;
• Allergic rashes on the skin;
• Persistent eosinophilia of the blood.

Children 7-15 years old, infected with lamblia, often lag behind in school, often complain of headache and general weakness of the body, sleep badly. Because the symptoms of the disease are similar to other diseases, acute treatment is rare because of the impossibility of rapid diagnosis. This is also due to the fact that only an analysis of giardiasis can confirm the presence of parasites in the body, however, it is very rare. As a result, doctors often have to deal with the chronic form of the disease.

Symptoms of chronic lambliasis

This form of the disease is, as a rule, recurrent. Symptoms are as follows:

• lack of appetite;
• Violation of the general condition of the body;
• Lagging of the tongue;
• Change in the shade of the skin;
• Peeling around the mouth;
• Unstable stools;
• Neurotic disorders;
• Bloating.

At children of preschool age the clinical picture can be accompanied by functional infringements of a digestive path. As a result, the treatment of giardiasis in children, the therapy scheme will primarily be aimed at normalizing the state of the body. In adolescents infected with Giardia, along with the intestines, liver and pancreas often occur.

Diagnosis of the disease

According to experts, even if a person manifests the above described symptoms, before thinking about how to get rid of lamblia, you need to make sure that the infection really happened. For this purpose, the doctors prescribe laboratory tests. The patient is offered to hand over the feces on Giardia. With the help of this study, specialists determine the presence of parasitic cysts in the body. To confirm the diagnosis, the patient is additionally assigned a blood test, since in case of infection, characteristic antibodies will be observed in the patient. In addition, duodenoscopy may be prescribed. Due to this procedure, the contents of the duodenum are checked and all kinds of lamblia are found.

Treatment of giardiasis in children: a scheme

If the results of the tests confirm that the child has a lambliasis, the parents should prepare for a serious and sufficiently long treatment. The course of the disease must be monitored by the attending physician, self-medication in this case is very dangerous. There are several ways to treat giardiasis in children: medicamentous, homeopathic and phytotherapeutic. However, regardless of the chosen method, the treatment scheme is the same and consists of 3 stages:

• Preparation for treatment;
• Basic therapy;
• Rehabilitation of the body.

The duration of the first stage is usually 2-4 weeks. The main task at this time - to suppress the proliferation of lamblia and improve the body's resistance. A child during the treatment period must follow a certain diet. Menu with giardiasis necessarily includes the presence of dried fruits, vegetables, cereals, vegetable oil, cranberries, cowberries. In turn, the use of carbohydrates, especially sugar, should be limited or, if possible, completely eliminated. At this stage, the doctor can also appoint enterosorbents, choleretic preparations, enzymes.

The second stage includes antiparasitic therapy. The doctor prescribes medications that have the ability to directly affect lamblia. Because of the increased toxicity of these medicines, the duration of this stage should not exceed 10 days. It is also very important to remember the contraindications and side effects. Therefore, the choice of the drug and treatment regimen should be prescribed only by a doctor who will take into account all the characteristics of the child's body.

The third stage is also very important. It allows to normalize the work of the baby's gastrointestinal tract, to eliminate the side effects of drugs and the consequences of lamblia's life. Particular importance in this period should be given to the diet. From medications prescribe multivitamins, probiotics, enzyme preparations.

Treatment of giardiasis with folk remedies

Along with the use of medications, it is necessary not to forget the ancient ways, which have been used for several decades for the healing of patients suffering from such a disease as giardiasis. Folk treatment improves the condition of the patient, removes symptoms and for 1-2 courses allows you to completely cleanse the body of parasites. Of course, before applying any herbal preparations, you also need to consult a doctor so as not to harm the body. So, how to treat giardiasis with folk remedies.

• 300 g of dry twigs linden ground, put in heat-resistant dishes and set on fire. The resulting ash is ground into a powder, sieved and divided into 7 equal parts. Eat it twice a day, carefully stirring each part with 10 grams of natural honey and washing down 150-200 ml of warm boiled milk.
• 1 tbsp. L. Chopped herbs celandine cooked in a liter of home-made milk for about 15-20 minutes, then cleaned from the fire and allowed to cool. A little warm broth is filtered through gauze. Accepted on an empty stomach at 0.5 liters per day for several meals. The first serving should be 150 ml. The course of therapy is 5 days.
• With giardiasis, tincture of vegetable oil, beets and horseradish will be an excellent assistant. For its preparation raw beets and horseradish should be grated on a fine grater and mixed in equal quantities. The resulting mixture is poured with vegetable oil (1: 1), mixed and insisted for at least 3 hours. Eat 15 g for 10-15 minutes before the main meals.
• 25 g of dried birch leaves are brewed in a thermos 750 ml of boiling water and insisted for about 20-24 hours. Ready-made infusion adults consume 1 glass, children sufficient 70-100 ml. After treatment, it is recommended to lie down for 15-30 minutes with a warm warmer on the stomach. Treatment in this way is quite long and is 6 months.
• The next collection consists of 4 tbsp. L. Dried leaves of mint, 3 tbsp. L. Seeds of dill, roots of calamus, tansy, corn stigmas and 1 dess. L. Carnations. To strengthen the hepatoprotective effect of the drug, it is recommended to add 2 tbsp. L. Milk thistle. All components are ground into a powder, mixed and consumed for 0.5 tsp. Three times a day for a month. In addition, ascorbic acid is used. After the course of treatment, it is necessary to make a medical examination, and if necessary, after 2 weeks, repeat the course.
• To treat children from giardiasis, take over cucumbers, crush them and pour them into a 3-liter glass container. Then pour them with steep boiling water and let them brew. When the mass cools down, it is filtered. The liquid is taken to a cool place and used for drinking, replacing it with water.
• 1 tsp. Lumbago brewed a glass of steep boiling water, put in a water bath and heated for another half an hour, not letting it boil. After the required time, the infusion is removed from the fire, cooled and filtered. The finished product is given to the child 5 ml every 3 hours. For adults, the norm is doubled. The use of the present is contraindicated in nephritis and gastritis.
• In equal parts they take the grass of celandine, a pile and a thousand-thousandths, cones of alder, birch buds and the rhizome of a blood-groove. Everything is ground and mixed. 2 tbsp. L. The resulting dry mixture is poured into a thermos flask and 500 ml of boiling water is brewed. Insist 7-10 hours. The finished preparation is taken 70 ml three times a day. The full course of therapy is 1-2 months depending on the course of the disease.

Complications of giardiasis and its prevention

In order not to become infected with Giardiasis, it is enough to observe simple hygienic norms: wash fruit and vegetables, boil drinking water, regularly wash your hands and take tests. After talking with pets, you also need to wash your hands thoroughly, as they too can be carriers of infection.

Despite the fact that giardiasis is not a disease that can endanger the patient's life, it can undermine the body's defenses and disrupt the work of certain organs. Timely reception of special antiparasitic drugs helps to protect a person from the development of infection and avoid complications of Giardiasis. In the case of severe intoxication, the deterioration of the skin, the disruption of the digestive tract, inflammation in the small intestine, the development of gastritis and duodenitis are possible.