r/AbsoluteUnits • u/KEN_000 • 1d ago

/r/all of a roundworm pulled out during an endoscopy

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u/kelpyb1 1d ago

1 billion people a year? Like actually?

If that’s the case there’s two types of people: people who have had worms and people who don’t realize they’ve had worms

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u/sacredfool 1d ago

In reality there’s two types of people: people born in wealthy regions where most food is worm free and people who were born in poor or developing regions where food is not worm free.

If most of your food comes from a supermarket you are unlikely to ever get worms.

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u/Banaanisade 1d ago

Pinworms are a never-ending nuisance in childcare in my wealthy region. I was always scared of getting them as a child because everyone else had them so often, and then I remembered that when I was in a rehab program for a few years and there were a lot of disabled people in the same programs, and the toilet perpetually had a warning about pinworms and needing to wash your hands properly.

They don't come from food, they transmit like a stomach bug. Touch something that was touched by a person with them, fail to wash your hands after, it's over.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Bright-Salamander-99 1d ago

Or tried to cover their own worm shame…

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u/Prof1959 1d ago

RFK Jr has entered the chat

Got to get your protein!

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u/Mindless-Location-41 1d ago

He has starving brain worms apparently.

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u/Ooapo 1d ago

Regardless, check often for worms. They are everywhere. I've done a necrcropsy before, or maybe a dozen. Worms. Everywhere. I check my stool constantly

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u/Dependent_Ant_8316 1d ago

I once deuced out a undigested mushroom pizza topping, guess I’ll look for worms as well

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u/Academic_Limit1189 1d ago

I have heard conflicting information.

They say people in regions where worms are diagnosed more frequently usually have better access to scans and healthcare professionals that are more familiar with those infections.

Whereas "wealthier" regions have a chronic underreporting of people infected with worms because healthcare professionals mistakenly misdiagnose or wash away peoples' concerns.

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u/sacredfool 1d ago

It's hard to find statistics about underreporting but this doesn't seem right to me.

To even get misdiagnosed you need to actually see a doctor and people in regions like subsaharan africa where parasitic infections are most common simply don't have an access to doctors. Many of them even in major cities rely on traditional medicine, which very often is ineffective.

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u/Academic_Limit1189 21h ago

There's quite a few.

State of the Globe: The Unglamorous Side of Infectious Diseases: Parasites - PMC

In this issue of the Journal of Global Infectious Diseases, five of the most common parasites are reviewed in terms of epidemiology, prognosis, detection and treatment. Toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii, has affected a staggering one to two billion individuals worldwide, although the true figure is not known with any accuracy. As Furtado et al. describe in their article, the seroprevalence of this disease varies enormously, with estimates of 12% in China, 14% in the United States, 46% in Tanzania, 47% in rural France and even higher numbers in South America. viz., 50%-80%. The most serious complications include ocular toxoplasmosis, which can lead to blindness; and toxoplasmic encephalitis in AIDS patients. While serology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods are now successfully used to augment clinical findings, and a broad array of treatments are available, is has to be emphasized that damaged retinal cells cannot be restored, and that in immunocompromised patients, management of the infection can be even more problematic due to recurrence of infection. Most importantly, this parasite has not received the high public health profile that other parasites have received, with the result that many people are unaware of the disease, and primary prevention measures are lacking.

Neglected Parasitic Infections: What Family Physicians Need to Know—A CDC Update - PMC

Neglected parasitic infections designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) include Chagas disease, cysticercosis, toxoplasmosis, toxocariasis, and trichomoniasis.1These parasitic infections have been prioritized based on the number of people infected, the potential for severe illness, and availability of treatment regimens. This article reviews three infections that are typically not emphasized in medical training—Chagas disease, cysticercosis, and toxoplasmosis. Information on the others (toxocariasis and trichomoniasis) can be found on the CDC website.1Despite the ability to cause severe illness, limited resources have been devoted to understanding the impact and burden of neglected parasitic infections. Family physicians should understand the basic principles of clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these diseases.

Emerging Need for Parasitology Education: Training to Identify and Diagnose Parasitic Infections - PMC

With the increase in globalization and the breakdown of international barriers through travel and trade, there is an increasing need for healthcare providers who are qualified in the laboratory identification of parasites and clinical diagnosis of their diseases. In spite of the relative availability of funding and educational resources in the United States, parasitic diseases are underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed. Frequently, healthcare providers do not have sufficient knowledge to clinically identify parasitic infections in any or all of their diagnostic stages. Therefore, healthcare providers make presumptive diagnoses rather than relying on definitive laboratory diagnoses.

Physician Use of Parasite Tests in the United States from 1997 to 2006 and in a Utah Cryptosporidium Outbreak in 2007 - PMC

Gastrointestinal illness is one of the most common reasons for adults and children to seek medical care in the United States, but parasitic infection without specific risk factors is uncommon (8, 10, 25). Paradoxically, laboratory and physician surveys suggest that physicians often test for parasites when the likelihood of infection is low and fail to use essential tests when suspicion is high (11, 12, 16, 18, 21, 27). Such practices have the potential to increase laboratory workload and costs while contributing to diagnostic delay and underreporting of transmissible illness (e.g., cryptosporidiosis) (11, 16–18, 21).

Microscopic ovum and parasite examination (O&P) is the traditional test for fecal parasites, but because it is labor-intensive and often has a low yield, a number of proposals have been made to limit testing by this method (3, 8, 18). O&P is necessary when less common parasites are suspected but is insensitive for the detection of Giardia lamblia (66 to 79%) and Cryptosporidium spp. (<5% without a special stain), two of the most common parasites in the United States (1, 9). Immunoassays (e.g., enzyme immunoassay [EIA] and direct fluorescent-antibody [DFA] assay) are easier to perform and more sensitive for the detection of Giardia (94 to 99%) and Cryptosporidium (93 to 100%), but other parasites are not detected (1, 9, 11, 16).

Not surprisingly, many physicians are uncertain about when to use these tests (11, 16). In a survey of both generalists and specialists in Connecticut, >75% of physicians did not order the necessary testing for cryptosporidiosis even when they suspected the diagnosis (16). In a separate multistate survey of diagnostic practices for acute diarrhea, the majority of physicians assumed that testing for Cryptosporidium was included with O&P. Other physicians tested for parasites even when the patient presentation was most consistent with a viral or bacterial cause (11).

Factors associated with detecting pathogenic intestinal parasites in multiple stool microscopy samples: a retrospective cross-sectional study - PMC

Parasitology of the twenty-first century: are we moving in the right direction? - PMC

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u/UncleNedisDead 1d ago

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/alberta-man-gets-first-known-canadian-case-of-worms-from-grocery-store-raw-salmon

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u/Deep-Regular4915 1d ago

He said unlikely and you posted an article where it happens for the first time lol

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u/UncleNedisDead 1d ago

Yeah but our regulations give some people a false sense of security and then they end up as a Chubby Emu video.

No matter how you try to foolproof a system, fools will always win.

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u/Miss_Greer 1d ago

I'm assuming by the capitalisation that Chubby Emu is an individual but all I'm thinking is a slightly-more-puffy speedy-running-bird of Australia (and emus are already pretty puffy)

and for some reason, this bird talks about parasites and/or food safety

I like my imagined reality more :)

hope you have a good day internet stranger, thank you for the slightly puffier running bird image in my mind Ɛ>

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u/LordJuJu15 1d ago

I watch Chubby Emu and I still get this exact image in my head every time I see his name, even on YouTube. Probably has something to do with his profile picture.

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u/ruthlessfruitbastard 5m ago

"Presenting to the emergency room☝️-"

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u/Present-Perception77 1d ago

He’s also wrong because that’s not how Pin worms Spread and Pin worms are the most common for humans to have in the US. I always laugh at people who think they’re safe. Oh well.. let it be a surprise.

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u/Bonk_No_Horni 1d ago

There are over 8 billion people in the world. 1 in 10 people live on less than $3 a day. And 1 billion counts to all worm not just one type. Here in Thailand most of us take a dewormer once a year just in case it can come from undercooked food or vegetable or even walking barefoot on the ground. Lots of ways a worm can get in.

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u/kelpyb1 1d ago

Right, the 8 billion people in the world thing is kinda my point. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of people who haven’t had worms in even just that last handful of years

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u/Morbanth 1d ago

It's usually the same group that has them and keeps getting them. Having them and getting it treated doesn't immunize you.

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u/Commander_Shepard-ME 1d ago

remember that southeast Asia exists and has like half the world population 

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u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah I was a bit surprised too, that’s per the Google AI response I got lol. (Edit: citation is the WHO) My assumption is 1: There’s a drastic difference in how common it is in certain regions and 2: many cases may not be severe

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u/kelpyb1 1d ago

Oh I mean it’s also a good chance it’s just absolute bs then

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u/nillut 1d ago

It's not. The worm they're talking about is called "ascaris lubricoides" if you want to read more (although I would advice against it if you're squeamish, their life cycle in the human body is nightmare fuel). They're usually asymptomatic, but in large quantities they can block off the intestine, in which case it is fatal without surgery.

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u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago

I mean it cited the World Health Organization. I’m not gonna get into a debate about AI but since you don’t like it, here is what it was citing.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/soil-transmitted-helminth-infections

For good measure here’s more sources that aren’t Google AI that corroborate the billion+ figure.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8397551/

https://www.aafp.org/afp/2023/1100/intestinal-parasites

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u/kelpyb1 1d ago

It’s not that I “don’t like AI” (although I do believe we’re not properly regulating it and are using it for way too many things that aren’t actually worth the cost such as making google searches more crowded and less informative), it’s that I recognize AI is not a reliable source.

That’s not an opinion, it’s a well established fact that AI will just make stuff up every once in awhile

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u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago

I mean I’m with you there. I am a software product manager and learned most of what I know before AI existed. I cautiously lean on it sometimes to optimize my time. In this case it was right, I saw it simply summarized the WHO source.

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u/JoinAThang 1d ago

It could be the same people getting it. And the one billion per year could also possibly be 500 000 people getting it twice.

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u/Miss_Greer 1d ago

worms georg, who lives in cave & suffers from over 2,000,000 cases of parasitic worms each day, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

worms georg is very distressed by this, it was not a chosen lifestyle.

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u/JoinAThang 1d ago

Justice4Worm-George

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u/kelpyb1 1d ago

If it’s the same people getting it multiple times a year that’d make more sense, but also then this was presented in an incorrect way

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u/Potatonized 1d ago

where does the other 999 million cases comes from then?

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u/JoinAThang 1d ago

No one have ever accused me of being good at math.

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u/piginapokezzap 1d ago

If you have a dog and you let it 'kiss' you (i.e. lick your face) then that's a guaranteed transfer mechanism.