Adult Trichuris trichuria live in the colon, caecum, and appendix. Their anterior end is buried in the mucosal epithelium, allowing their posterior ends to move freely in the intestine. Adults can live for several years inside the body.
Photo Credit: medicine.cmu.ac.edu
The female whipworm produces a ton of eggs. These are passed out of the body unembryonated, then develop for 3 weeks in the soil. Again, these are easily preventable if feces are not allowed to sit around in places for weeks where people can come by and touch them again! The eggs are barrel-shaped, with a thick smooth shell, and bi-polar plugs. Once they're swallowed, they hatch in the upper small intestine, undergo further development, and make their way down to where they really want to live, where they embed themselves.
Photo Source: wikipedia.com
The adults have an interesting feature called the stichosome,which is a collection of secretory cells that line the esophagus and produce proteins. It's been theorized that these aid in the ingestion of nutrients from the intestinal mucosa, since the Trichuris mouths are embedded.
Signs only occur when a person is highly infected. It may cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, and tenesmus, which basically means a feeling of having to go to the bathroom all the time. There may be Charcot-Leyden crystals in the stool, which are little pink crystals caused by allergic reactions. Anemia is much less common than with hookworm infections. They can cause prolapse of the rectum, especially in children, as they weaken the rectum at the same time as they create an urge to push.
They may also produce long term deficits in development and cognitive functions.
Diagnosis can be made though seeing the eggs in feces, or the adult worms may be seen during sigmoidoscopy. Treatment is done with albendazole and mebendazole, and is done a lot with school children.
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