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Echinococcosis can be fatal due to unwashed berries. However, do not give up eating these tasty and healthy fruits, you just have to wash them thoroughly.
By eating unwashed berries or wild strawberries, one can become infected with a fox tapeworm, which causes a very dangerous disease – echinococcosis cystica (Latin echinococcosis). The disease develops asymptomatically for many years. If diagnosed too late, it can be fatal.
Tapeworm in animals
The latest data from the Polish Academy of Sciences shows that foxes infected with this tapeworm live in our forests. According to Dr. Andrzej Połozowski from the Department of Parasitology of the University of Life Sciences in Wrocław, autopsies carried out on hunted foxes showed that the most infected animals are in Podkarpacie, Warmia and Mazury. – In the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship, however, the fox tapeworm was not found
Unwashed fruit
By eating an unwashed blueberry, we can also eat a tapeworm egg. We can get infected only by picking berries, if we do not wash our hands after returning from the forest. – The fox tapeworm larva, which enters the human body, settles in the internal organs, where it grows slowly, without causing any symptoms for a long time – explains Dr. Połozowski.
Tapeworm symptoms, diagnosis and treatment
The parasite’s eggs nest most frequently in the liver, lungs, and brain, but can also be found in the kidneys, spleen, bones and eye. They develop similarly to a cancerous tumor. Bąblowica destroys a person like a cancer. If the larva becomes embedded in the liver, it may cause aches and pains in the right hypochondrium, malaise, and in case of pressure on the bile ducts, also jaundice.
The disease is difficult to detect because tumor-like lesions do not appear until 10-15 years after infection. Only a thorough laboratory examination allows for the diagnosis of echinococcosis. The resulting cysts and tissue damage caused by the tapeworm are surgically removed. Late detecting echinococcosis has poor prognosis and often necessitates a liver transplant. After surgical removal of the lesions, many years of chemotherapy are necessary, as metastases, e.g. to the brain, are possible.
Bubble gum – prevention
Prevention of infection with this tapeworm is primarily based on a very thorough washing of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, wild strawberries and mushrooms. Dr. Połozowski advises that the berries should first be soaked in lukewarm water for several minutes, and then rinsed thoroughly with a stream of water. They must not be eaten straight from the bush. You must always wash your hands after collecting the undergrowth. You should also not forget about regular deworming of dogs and cats.
Text: Halina Pilonis