Fox tapeworm infestation The life-threatening risk is also increasing in the cities

Potentially deadly disease: fox tapeworm is also a problem in cities
In the past, it was mainly farmers who were considered endangered that the risk of fox tapeworm infestation is now also growing in the cities. Contagion can be fatal. The infection is detected in many cases only after years.

Now threatens also in cities a danger
When collecting wild mushrooms or cuddling with pets, there is a danger of taking invisible fox tapeworm eggs to the naked eye. If such an infection was diagnosed until a few years ago mainly by farmers and hunters, urbanites are increasingly affected. Only in the summer the Hamburg health authority issued a warning against health dangers, after the parasite with routinely investigations with two foxes had been determined. However, animal rights activists had pointed out a few months ago that the health risk from foxes in residential areas was low. Caution does not hurt anyway.

Fuchs adapts to city life
As reported by the "Ärzte Zeitung" online, the fox adapts to city life and leaves behind its feces, which can contain tapeworm eggs and often remain contagious for months, in sandboxes or on vegetable beds. If the eggs are taken by humans, for example, by insufficiently washed food, they probably migrate through the duodenum into the liver. After a contagion spreads the potentially fatal disease initially insidious: Untreated, the liver is destroyed - in rare cases, the lungs and brain are affected. The diagnosis is often made only after years. Patients may experience symptoms such as upper abdominal pain, weight loss, persistent fatigue and fatigue. Some have jaundice and medical examinations, a mass in the liver is detected.

"Epicenter" in southern Germany
Ulm and surroundings are considered in Germany as the "epicenter" of the rare parasitic disease. For this reason, most of the patients with alveolar echinococcosis of the liver are treated nationwide at Ulm University Hospital. By August, 96 diseases were reported nationwide to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), 22 of them were people in Baden-Württemberg. "I can reassure my patients by saying that they are unlikely to die of fox tapeworm disease," Dr. Beate Grüner, internist at the Ulm Clinic.

Pay attention to hygiene rules
The physicians of the hospital also emphasize that nature lovers and hobby gardeners should not be unsettled. According to her, alveolar echinococcosis of the liver is a rare disease and it does not have to come to an infection: "In general, you should wash fruits and vegetables near the ground before eating them. In addition to observing common hygiene rules, it makes sense to deworm dogs and cats every three months. "In addition, they can clean up with a common prejudice: forest berries are by no means particularly heavily burdened with tapeworm eggs. (Ad)