[dpark]

Are there areas in the developed world where this is common? I’ve never heard of anyone regularly taking anti parasitic medication because their kids kept bringing home parasites from daycare. I had a friend whose son was prescribed medicine for pinworms once when he was fairly young (mostly as a precaution).

[Epa095]

  Pinworms are particularly common in children, with prevalence rates in this age group having been reported as high as 61% in India, 50% in England, 39% in Thailand, 37% in Sweden, and 29% in Denmark. [1]

Remember that

  prevalence is the proportion of a particular population found to be affected by a medical condition (typically a disease or a risk factor such as smoking or seatbelt use) at a specific time.

So it is not just that percentage has had it at any point in their life, it is that percentage that has it at any time.

And yes, kids. Pinworm is literally called 'children worm' here.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_(parasite)#burkhart200...

[dpark]

That’s interesting, thanks. Looks like it’s 11%-ish in the US which is lower than the other cited countries but still more common than I would have guessed.

[Spooky23]

If you’re a suburban kid, GenX or later you may have missed the peaks. In the 60s, it was more like 35-45% of kids.

Things like rules for handwashing and standards for things like residential plumbing improved hygiene and reduced ringworms. Many urban and rural households didn’t have things we take for granted like hot water!

[dpark]

Millennial. But I was thinking less about my own childhood and more about never treating my kids or (with the one exception) hearing of friends treat theirs.

> ringworms

Typo? Ringworm is fungal despite the name.

[Spooky23]

Doh! Missed the edit window. I’ll blame Siri dictation ;)

[gehsty]

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/threadworm/background-informa...

NICE estimate 20-30% of kids 4-11 have an infestation. I have three kids in this bracket and yeh this tracks

[alistairSH]

Huh. Have the numbers gone up since the 80s? Worms are not something I ever heard about as a child, teen, or twenty-something.

That said, I also had a kid in the 00s and my friends have kids now, and nobody has mentioned getting worms.

[sallveburrpi]

I had worms as a kid once in the nineties, I ate some cookies I found buried in the sand on the playground.

It’s not super common (if you live in Europe) but it happens.

Meanwhile my friends who grew up in a tropical country they had to take anti-worm meds regularly.

It depends a lot on your circumstances

[Epa095]

It is actually extremely common in Europe (as I linked to in a sibling chat), with 30-40% of kids having it at any time.

With those rates, my guess is that you probably had it several times, but just thought your bum was itching for no reason (or you were one of the asymptomatic cases). I think the awareness of it has gone up, now it's common to let the kindergarten know if you suspect it in your child, and they send a message to the other parents.

[gehsty]

To be blunt you do not get it from eating cookies in sand. You get it from ingesting pinworm eggs, you ingest them by someone touching their bum (where the worms lay eggs) and then touching something that you then touch and touch your face/mouth, or scratching your own bum in your sleep then scratching your face / mouth.

If you don’t think it’s super commen in Europe it’s generally a lack of diagnoses. Literally 1/5th Of British kids have it at any given time (and I imagine that tracks across Europe and USA at least)

[gehsty]

Asymptomatic infestation is very common… no one likes to talk about pinworms but it’s pretty likely any kids you meet have it.

[SvenL]

Yes, it’s fairly common infection in children. I mean they don’t wash carefully their hands, they put everything in their mouth - it would be a real surprise if they would not catch it.

[exasperaited]

I believe I know an immune-compromised adult who was taking anti-parasitics for more than two years due to workplace (care context) reinfections. I say “believe” because these are two things people talk about in coded, careful ways. It might be a little more common than polite conversation ever really reveals.

For example if you know anyone who raised early concerns about antivaxxers causing short supply of ivermectin formulations for human use during the pandemic. More or less anyone who knew what ivermectin was at that point in time was either a farmer, a vetinarian, a doctor… or a patient with a condition.