What is known to have grown up to thirty meters long and yet lives within you, probably without your knowledge or consent? Welcome to the tapeworm. Although the thirty-meter specimen was found inside the gut of a whale captured near Catalina Island, tapeworms can reach staggering lengths inside the bodies of humans.
An adult tapeworm has a scolex or “head” that is attached with hooks and suction cups to the host’s intestines. Below this head is a neck that is continually expanding and growing. They fill with eggs and sperm as they mature. The younger segments are generally the male segments and fertilize the eggs released by older segments upstream. All it takes is a single worm to produce a billion eggs in its lifetime.
Eggs usually reach the world through fecal matter. Many of the eggs do not survive, but those that do generally become very active as adults. You can get tapeworms from eating undercooked meat, raw fish, or sometimes from petting dogs. You can get the most dangerous tapeworm for man, the beef tapeworm, this way. The people of Scandinavia are particularly at risk because of their love of raw fish dishes. In some parts of Finland, 80% of people are said to be infected.
Some experts say that having tapeworms has minimal effects on your hosts. However, they are very uncomfortable to have. People infected with tapeworms often experience abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, vertigo, headaches, tiredness, anorexia, muscle pain, vitamin deficiencies, weight loss, rectal flutter, depression, and psychosis. In very rare cases, tapeworm infestations have been fatal. Doesn’t sound too small, huh?
Tapeworms can become a serious problem, especially if you allow them to reproduce uncontrollably within you.
