Opisthorchis

Opisthorchiasis is a helminthic disease caused by the parasitic fluke species _Opisthorchis felineus_ and other parasitic worms accompanying them. They affect the hepatobiliary system. Infection with opisthorchiasis occurs when eating poorly processed, insufficiently fried fish of the carp family, infested with metacercariae of the worm O. felineus. The source of infection is a sick person or ticks on the skin of cats and dogs. When they suck blood from the mucous membrane of the skin of the hands, they become infected with worm eggs. The parasite's segment, filled with larvae, enters the blood through damaged skin, blood and liver through the bile ducts and spreads throughout the body. Having penetrated the duodenum through the pylorus, the larvae are fixed on the intestinal wall and develop into a sexually mature individual. Fertilized individuals, migrating up the ducts, enter the gallbladder, then into the common bile duct, causing its inflammation. The parasite then descends into the intestines and dies there. It parasitizes in the human body for up to 35–40 years. The invasion is characterized by a polymorphism of clinical manifestations: from an asymptomatic course with mild manifestations of intoxication to a severe chronic disease. Diagnosis is based on the detection of opisthorchid and subhepatic flukes eggs in the duodenal contents of the patient. Sometimes microscopy of bile obtained from duodenomylia is performed, since opisthorchiasis eggs quickly die in the stomach in the presence of hydrochloric acid. Parasite larvae are detected by laparoscopy. Treatment of opisthorchiasis lesions of the biliary tract is carried out with two antiparasitic drugs: quinine - for 4 days, or bifusin - 5 days in combination with one-stage, and then 2 more consecutive courses of a nitrofuran drug. The prognosis is favorable after 3 courses of treatment and taking into account the general condition of the patient. Health problems may occur with re-infection.

Normally, a person does not suffer from a helminthic infection at all. Minor pain under the right rib in the right lobe of the liver, its slight increase in size, sometimes pain in the right hypochondrium, chronic urticaria, skin itching occur under the influence of cholangitis caused by parasites of the genus opisthorchid. You can get rid of the disease in the early stages quite easily. Advanced and severely ill patients have a poor prognosis. It is very important to treat opisthorchiasis in pregnant women - they can get sick, but it is better not to carry out therapy during the first trimester. After childbirth, it is possible and desirable to carry out therapy, especially if the woman is breastfeeding - thus, treatment of opisthorchid is carried out using natural and synthetic drugs that are effective and safe for the newborn.