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VIII.136 - Tapeworm

from Part VIII - Major Human Diseases Past and Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Kenneth F. Kiple
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, Ohio
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Summary

Tapeworms are flatworms in the class Cestoda of the phylum Platyhelminthes. The body of an adult worm consists of a small head or scolex, which is usually armed with hooks or suckers to attach the animal to the wall of its host’s small intestine, and a chain of segments or proglottids. New proglottids arise by budding from the scolex region. As they mature, they are pushed away from the head by the formation of new proglottids and develop both male and female sex organs. After fertilization, eggs or gravid proglottids are excreted with the host’s feces. Tapeworm life cycles are complex. In general, the eggs must be ingested by an intermediate host, where they typically become saclike larvae in the tissues. When the host of the adult form (the definitive host) eats an infected intermediate host, adult worms develop in its intestine. Some species have two or more intermediate hosts and can use several species as the definitive host. Serious clinical disease often occurs when a parasite becomes established in an atypical host or when larval forms are able to develop in what is normally a definitive host.

History

Because tapeworms can exceed 30 feet in length and strings of segments are often passed in the feces, it is not surprising that they were described by ancient writers in China, India, and the Mediterranean world. Encysted larvae – bladderworms or cysticerci – have been known in beef and pork for millennia, but their relationship to adult worms was not suspected until the eighteenth century and not proved until 1855, when F. Küchenmeister fed larval pork tapeworms concealed in food to condemned criminals and recovered adult worms on autopsy.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

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References

Bornsdorff, Bertil von. 1977. Diphyllobothriasis in man. London.Google Scholar
Desowitz, Robert S. 1978. On New Guinea tapeworms and Jewish grandmothers. Natural History 85.Google Scholar
Ferreira, L. F., Araujo, A. J. G., Confalonieri, U. E. C., and Nunez, L.. 1984. The finding of eggs of Diphyllobothrium in human coprolites (4,100–1,950 B.C.) from northern Chile. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, W. D. 1965. A short history of parasitology. Edinburgh and London.Google Scholar
Kean, B. H., Mott, Kenneth E., and Russell, Adair J., eds. 1978. Tropical medicine and parasitology: Classic investigations, Vol. II ;. Ithaca and London.Google Scholar
Ward, W. B. 1930. The introduction and spread of the fish tapeworm (Diphyllobothrium latum) in the United States. Baltimore.Google Scholar

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  • Tapeworm
  • Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge World History of Human Disease
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521332866.198
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  • Tapeworm
  • Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge World History of Human Disease
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521332866.198
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Tapeworm
  • Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
  • Book: The Cambridge World History of Human Disease
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521332866.198
Available formats
×