Threadworms symptoms and treatments (2024)

FAQs

How do you get rid of threadworms once and for all? ›

If you or your child has threadworms, everyone in your household will need to be treated as there's a high risk of the infection spreading. This includes those who don't have any symptoms of an infection. For most people, treatment will involve taking a single dose of a medication called mebendazole to kill the worms.

Red flags to look out for:

Loss of appetite. Weight loss. Bedwetting (consider other diagnoses e.g. Type 1 diabetes) Skin infections around anus caused by scratching.

Check if it's threadworms

You can spot threadworms in your poo. They look like pieces of white thread. You might also see them around your child's bottom (anus).

Yes, it is normal to see dead threadworms in the persons bowel motions. Depending on the frequency of bathroom visits this can take up to one week. Symptoms of threadworm infection usually disappear within one week of treatment.

Threadworms are easily treated with medicine available over-the-counter from your pharmacist. Usually the medicine is taken as a single dose. Your doctor may advise you to take another dose 2 weeks later.

How to treat threadworms: hygiene. You should stick to the hygiene method strictly for six weeks if you're not using any medication for threadworms. This not only clears up a threadworm infection but it also reduces the chances of re-infection, since the lifespan of a threadworm is approximately six weeks.

Threadworms look like thin, white, cotton threads. Sometimes you can see them in faeces (stools or motions) in the toilet. If you cannot see threadworms in the faeces, but suspect your child has threadworms (if they have an itchy bottom), try inspecting the child's anus.

The worms die after about six weeks. Provided that you do not swallow any new eggs, then no new worms will grow to replace them. So, if you continue the hygiene measures described above for six weeks, this should break the cycle of re-infection, and clear your gut of threadworms.

A grown pinworm is yellowish white, slender and about one centimetre long. Around 4 weeks after ingestion, the adult female moves down the gut and exits the body via the anus to lay a batch of eggs on the surrounding skin, often at night. The worm then dies, her reproductive mission complete.

Are dead threadworms contagious? ›

Using treatment threadworms will kill the worms, but does not kill the eggs. This means it is still possible to reinfect yourself or other family members after medicating for the recommended amount of time. Eggs can continue to live outside the body for up to 2 weeks.

Some types of intestinal worms, such as tapeworms, may disappear on their own if you have a strong immune system and healthy diet and lifestyle. However, depending on the type of intestinal worm infection, you may require treatment with an antiparasitic medication.

Pinworm infection treatment

Or your doctor may recommend another kind of medicine called pyrantel, which is taken as a single dose. Even if only one child in your family has pinworms, it's often important that everyone in the household be treated with the pinworm medicine at the same time.

Mebendazole acts by stopping the threadworms from absorbing vital nutrients such as sugars while they are in the gut, which leads to the starvation and death of the worms within a few days.

If you have worms, a GP will prescribe medicine to kill them. You take this for 1 to 3 days. The people you live with may also need to be treated. Any worms in your gut will eventually pass out in your poo.