Fresh forest fruit can bring you not only a pleasant taste experience, but also a serious illness that can end in death. At the same time, the number of infected people has been increasing in the Czech Republic in recent years. They also warn of the disease in neighboring Poland.
Fresh forest fruit is one of the most popular additions to holiday trips. But it also brings with it a great risk. “If you want to enjoy delicious and healthy forest fruits, wash them thoroughly and don’t forget your hands if you picked them. The fruit may contain eggs of parasites that cause a dangerous disease – echinococcosis,” warn tourists, for example State forests in neighboring Poland.
Echinococcosis is caused by the larvae of hookworms – parasites of carnivores, for which man is only an occasional intermediate host. But at the same time, they are silent killers. They are difficult to detect, and if not treated, they are fatal in 90% of those infected.
“The incubation period of the disease varies from 5 to 15 years. The disease is almost always localized in the liver. From the primary focus, it spreads further into the body through the lymphatic and blood routes. The disease resembles a malignant tumor in its character,” he writes further about the disease State Institute of Health (SZU).
Liver affected by mesentery | Source: IKEM
Previously, echinococcosis was exceptional in Central Europe, but in recent years the number of cases has increased significantly. Last year doctors according to that The SZÚ caught a record ten cases. This year then the situation is similarly serious. They discovered it in four people by May alone. This is one person more than during the same period in 2022.
Even after the infection is discovered, the patient does not win. Even the treatment itself is extremely demanding. The basis is the removal of the affected part of the liver. But doctors often have no choice but to proceed directly to the transplant. In addition to surgery, doctors usually have to use long-term chemotherapy to prevent the infection from spreading again from the hidden source.
Echinococcosis is caused by the parasites of the bubble mesentery, also called the fox tapeworm, and the pernicious mesentery. The first causes so-called multilocular echinococcosis, the second causes cystic. But both diseases are similar. A person can become infected with them both directly from animals – mainly foxes, but also from dogs – and from food that has come into contact with their droppings. Cats can also transmit bullous mesentery.
After a man ate blueberries in the forest, he had to undergo two operations. The fox tapeworm was the culprit (7/2022):
TN.cz
2023-07-06 13:01:00
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