Diagnosis
Your healthcare professional can diagnose trichinosis by asking about your symptoms and doing a physical exam. Tell your healthcare professional if you've eaten meat that was raw or not cooked to a safe temperature.
You also might have these tests:
- Blood tests. A blood sample can show signs of trichinosis. These signs include a high number of white blood cells called eosinophils. Or, after a few weeks, your blood might have formed antibodies against the parasite.
- Muscle biopsy. A blood test most often is enough to make a diagnosis. But your healthcare professional also might do a muscle biopsy. This involves removing a small piece of muscle to study under a microscope for roundworm larvae.
Treatment
Trichinosis most often gets better on its own. If you have a mild or moderate number of larvae, most symptoms go away within a few months. But you may have tiredness, mild pain, weakness and loose stools for months or years. Infection with a lot of larvae can cause worse symptoms that need treatment right away.
Your healthcare professional may prescribe different medicines based on what you need.
Antiparasitic medicine
This is the first line of treatment for trichinosis. Early on, albendazole or mebendazole (Emverm) can kill the worms and larvae in the small intestine. Side effects may include upset stomach, vomiting, loose stools and stomach pain.
If the larvae have buried themselves in muscle tissues, the antiparasitic medicines may not kill all the parasites. But you may take an antiparasitic medicine if you have brain, heart or lung pain and swelling, called inflammation, due to larvae in these organs.
Pain relievers
After the larvae are in the muscles, your healthcare professional may prescribe pain relievers to help ease muscle aches and inflammation. Over time, the larvae cysts in the muscles tend to harden into calcium, called calcify. Then the larvae die, and the muscle aches and weakness most often go away.
Steroid medicine
Sometimes trichinosis can cause an allergic reaction. This may happen when the parasite enters muscle tissue or when dead or dying larvae release chemicals in the muscle tissue. A steroid medicine may control pain and swelling.
Preparing for your appointment
You're likely to start by seeing your family healthcare professional. Sometimes, you may see an infectious disease specialist.
Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment.
What you can do
Make a list of:
- Your symptoms, and when they began. Include those that don't seem linked to the reason you scheduled the appointment.
- Key personal information. Include major stresses or recent life changes. Also list if you've eaten any raw or rare pork or wild-animal meat lately.
- All medicines, vitamins, herbs and supplements you take, including dosages.
- Questions to ask your healthcare team.
For trichinosis, some questions to ask include:
- What is likely causing my symptoms or condition?
- What are other possible causes?
- What tests do I need?
- Is my condition likely to clear up or last?
- What treatments are there?
- Are there brochures or other printed material I can have? What websites do you suggest?
Be sure to ask all the questions you have.
What to expect from your doctor
Your healthcare team may ask you questions, such as:
- Have you eaten raw or rare pork or wild-animal meat lately?
- Have your symptoms stayed with you or do they come and go?
- How bad are your symptoms?
- What, if anything, makes your symptoms better?
- What, if anything, makes your symptoms worse?
