Worm Infections Can Target The Human Heart

JAKARTA - Infections of worms in the human body are generally associated with digestive disorders, such as stomach pain, nausea, or diarrhea. However, not many realize these parasites can also spread through blood flow and attack other vital organs, including the heart.

This condition can be dangerous because it triggers heart rhythm disturbances to damage to the heart muscle. A heart and blood vessel specialist from the University of Indonesia, dr. Asmoko Resta Permana Sp.JP(K) FIHA said a worm parasite that reproduces in the body can cause damage to the heart organs and there is calcification.

"So if he stops by the heart, it becomes calcification in his muscles, it will disturb the heart rhythm, if the stuffing is wide, the heart pump can also be disturbed, because the membranes will be stiff and including the muscles too," Asmoko said as quoted by ANTARA.

This pediatric cardiology consultant and congenital heart disease explains that worm parasites can infect various organs of the body because they are carried away by blood flow. The causes can come from undercooked foods, meat containing worm eggs, to dirty objects that enter the digestive system.

Once it enters the body, the worm will lay eggs, form a cyst, then spread to vital organs through the blood vessels. Not only muscles and the brain, the heart can also be affected.

Asmoko added that when a worm parasite reaches the heart's blood flow, damage can occur in the heart's electricity system.

"The most common 'electricity' occurs so slowly, the rhythm or it becomes too fast, the main thing is that the rhythm is not normal," he explained.

The doctor at Siloam Heart Hospital said that the period of worm infection in the body can last between two weeks and two months, depending on the number of incoming parasites.

Symptoms that can arise include palpitations in the heart, chest pain, especially when lying down, to shortness of breath due to inflammation of the membrane or heart muscle.

In children, Asmoko continued, the usually visible sign is a heart rate that is too slow or faster than normal, although not in the form of sudden cardiac arrest.

"It's slower or faster than normal. But if he suddenly stops because the parasite doesn't, the sudden stopping heart electrical disturbance is the descendant, another with the parasite," said Asmoko.