Whipworm
Whipworm - also known as Trichuris trichiura or trichuriasis - is ingested with contaminated food or water and develops in the bowel lumen. The worm lives in the human caecum; there is no extra-intestinal migration. It is not infective immediately it reaches the soil - i.e. the infection cannot be transmitted from one person to another. Instead there is a period during which the larva develops, after which it is infective for some time.
There are an estimated 500 million cases worldwide. Trichuriasis is 1 of 3 well-documented soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections; the other 2 are ascariasis and hookworm infection. It is considered a neglected tropical disease by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Reference
- Bansal R, Huang T, Chun S. Trichuriasis. Am J Med Sci. 2018 Feb;355(2):e3
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