To give medicine every 4-6 weeks

[Ethny]

My 5 yo keeps getting reinfected with threadworms every 4-6 weeks. Every time I treat the whole family except a baby 2-3 times with 2 weeks intervals (baby doesn’t have any symptoms). I contacted the school but they won’t send the warning. My GP is useless. My DD washes her hands all the time.
Did anyone have such period in their lives?

AIBU to accept it and just treat us all every month? Or should I try to change the school/treat the baby/fire our cleaner?

Bump. Desperately need to talk about it. It drives me crazy

Do you have a class WhatsApp you could mention it on ?

I'd be thinking that the little human that isn't being treated for worms is likely to be the source of constant reinfection in your home - and by default, also the source of repeat infections in children at school.

I’m sure you know all this already but just incase: The eggs of the worms are sticky and can live for 2 weeks on objects around your house or pet fur, then when you touch them you can be reinfected.

you shed the most eggs in the morning, coz they come out to lay them overnight.

so next time you treat- hoover every day, change underwear in the morning wearing gloves (put in some sort of nappy bag if you can’t wash straight away), shower in morning to wash away eggs, hot wash bedding, keep fingernails short.

can you ring environmental health and say there are constant outbreaks an could they investigate the cleanliness of the school? They have a duty of care to keep kids safe at school!

ask them for their cleaning protocol etc? It’s not fair or right for you to keep going through this.

My family went through this during covid when schools were making kids use sanitizer rather than hand washing before lunch...it didn't last very long

And yeah send samples from the baby for testing. 3 separate samples collected over a few different days - GP can advise you in this. Coz baby could be infected too.

My GP practice doesn’t know anything about the tape test unfortunately. Are you in the UK? Do you know anyone who does it?

The little one was only 2 weeks when it all started. I check her every night and don’t see anything. Maybe it’s a very mild case though

I’m not brave enough to do it. Yet. Maybe I will contact one of the group admins next time to share anonymous message in the chat.

Do you have a cleaner? What is she/he doing that you're paying them for? I think you need to change the GP and or ring environmental health as pp said.

Continually treating for thread worm can increase resistance to the medicine. It is usually only recommended when you actually get your torch and see the worms 😬

Not helpful to you, really, and I apologise.

Is there a step that you could be missing in the treatment and prevention? Maybe check out the latest NHS guidelines in case there is.

maybe ours are already resistant…

I’m happy to hear it’s over for someone. Kids in our school are not encouraged to wash their hands before snacks (fruits usually). Only before lunch.

@Ethny historically sellotape slides were done but it is now saline with a swab so dampen swab and rub around the anus area where the eggs are likely to be stuck.

then the lab will look at the liquid under a microscope. Your GP should advise you on how to take a sample. They can ring the lab for advice if they really don’t know how to take a sample. But they will know.

@Ethny method is here:
https://www.rcpath.org/static/35769984-d03b-4727-abaaf8c547ae519c/UK-SMI-B-31i51-June-2017-Investigation-of-specimens-other-than-blood-for-parasites.pdf

under the E.vermicularis (Latin name for threadworm basically) section pg 27.

@101Nutella wow! Thanks! I’ll talk to my GP about it. So far she wants to check stool sample of my oldest. I have no idea how it will help, it contradicts nhs guidelines. But maybe it will unlock further investigations. If my GP won’t help further I’ll try my luck with the private one.

@Ethny 3 stool samples taken over a 7-10 day period is the normal sample you’d expect for intestinal parasites as you can shed parasites intermittently in the stools. So by doing samples over a few days you hope to catch them and identify them in a lab.

however, it’s not the samples you’d expect to test for threadworm. The lab will have a user manual which tells the GPs what sample type is needed per test. It’s based on national guidance aka the link I sent earlier.

it could be your GP is looking to test for other parasites too to rule them out. But perhaps it’s best to have another convo, screen the whole family this time and then go hard on infection control measures considering how sticky the eggs are and that they are viable for 2 weeks etc. if you ingest an egg then it all starts again. From ingestion to the worn maturing can be 1-2 months so you might actually just be being reinfected from your home environment.

the other thing to consider is that you want to take these infection control measures for the whole lifecycle of an egg/worm incase one has just hatched to stop re infection. So not just hoovering for a couple of days after treatment- doing it for a longer period. I know it’s a faf but consider that hundreds of eggs are laid around your bum every night per worm and as you get up they could sprinkle about as it were. Plus people scratch their bums and spread the eggs. So think about where the eggs could get too and go from there for eradication.

some good household tips here; www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/stomach-liver-and-gastrointestinal-tract/threadworms/#:~:text=The%20eggs%20can%20survive%20up,months%20to%20mature%20into%20threadworms.

It’s a nightmare, isn’t it? My GP won’t see us unless someone has symptoms. I just treated us all yesterday with a second dose. I guess we need to wait another month