Diagnosis and Treatment
Most diagnoses are made by identifying the appearance of the worm or eggs in feces. Due to the large quantity of eggs laid, physicians can diagnose using only one or two fecal smears.
Infections can be treated with drugs called ascaricides. The treatment of choice is Mebendazole. The drug functions by binding to tubulin in the worms' intestinal cells and body-wall muscles. Nitazoxanide and ivermectin can also be used.
Read more about this topic: Ascaris Lumbricoides
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“I feel that any form of so called psychotherapy is strongly contraindicated for addicts.... The question “Why did you start using narcotics in the first place?” should never be asked. It is quite as irrelevant to treatment as it would be to ask a malarial patient why he went to a malarial area.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)