EAHHS Bu— >n Wunt 30. Numb* 3. Oec*me*» 2000 
5 
Ce S tod a Tapeworms 
Tapeworms arc parasitic 
flatworms. flat hut often scry 
long — up to 1 5 metres! They 
live in the intestines of 
animals. Tapeworms feed on 
tood that their host has already 
digested. They take in digested food 
through the walls of their bodies - 
they have no digestive system of 
small cysts called bladderworms in 
the host animal's muscles. 
ft 
Cooking meat thoroughly 
by roasting, trying or boiling 
kills bladderworms by high 
temperatures. But when a person 
eats raw or partly cooked infected 
meat, the bladders open and release 
tapeworm heads. A bee! tapeworm 
may live for more than ten years! 
Medicines arc available to kill 
their own. 
At one end of an adult tapeworm is 
the head, with suckers that attach 
to the host's intestine. The long 
hotly is made up nt pieces called 
segments. New segments grow’ from 
the area near the head 
Older segments contain the 
reproductive parts, both male and 
female. Eggs may be fertilised by 
sperms from the same segmrnt, or 
from another segment. Two 
tapeworms of the same kind in a host 
can fertilise each other. The 
segment becomes a sui containing 
thousands of eggs. The tapeworm 
larvae must now develop in a 
different kind of host. 
Beef Tapeworm is the commonest 
tapeworm in the world A person 
who has a Tapeworm passes segments 
like small whitish postage stamps in 
lus stool, or faeces. If the faeces arc 
left in the open, gracing cattle may 
swallow segments filled with eggs. 
The rggs hatch into larvae that form 
tapeworms, and using latrines stops 
the cycle. 
Hydatid cyst or Dog tapeworm is 
rare, but txcurs in northern Kenya 
where people keep livestock and 
dogs The adults arc very small. 2 
to 3 mm long. They live in the 
intestines of dogs and jackals, who 
get them from eating the meat of 
infected cattle or sherp. Tapeworm 
segments full of eggs arc passed in 
the faeces. 
Hydatid cyst tapeworm larvae have 
many possible hosts, including 
people, domestic mammals and wild 
animals. The larvae form cysts, 
usually in organs such as the liver 
or lungs. Small at first, the cysts 
can become very large. 
Dogs may be treated to kill the 
adult tapeworm, or led only on 
cooked meat Hydatid cysts in 
people can be treated with 
medicines or surgery. 
