Certain species of flukes cause infections of the intestine.
Flukes are parasitic flatworms. There are many species of flukes. Different species tend to infect different parts of the body. Flukes that infect the intestines include
Fasciolopsis buski, which causes fasciolopsiasis
Heterophyes heterophyes, which causes heterophyiasis
(See also Overview of Parasitic Infections.)
Intestinal fluke infections usually occur in Egypt, the Middle East, and parts of Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
The life cycle of flukes is complex. People get intestinal fluke infections when they drink contaminated water or eat aquatic plants (such as water chestnuts) or raw, undercooked, or salt-cured freshwater fish that contain cysts that contain fluke larvae.
Image from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Image Library.
Image from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Image Library.
Usually, intestinal fluke infections cause no or mild symptoms. But if the infection is severe, people may have abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fever. Sometimes the flukes prevent foods from being absorbed normally (called malabsorption) or block the intestine (called intestinal obstruction).
Doctors diagnose intestinal fluke infections when they see eggs or sometimes adult flukes in a person's stool (feces).
These fluke infections are treated with the medication praziquantel.
See also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on fasciolopsiasis.
