15 Frequent Causes of Whipworm Infection

Whipworm is a relatively common infection that can affect people of all backgrounds. The statistics show that around 600-800 million people suffer from the infection globally. There are quite a few symptoms that you’ll encounter if you’re suffering from a whipworm infection. These include bloody diarrhea — officially referred to as dysentery — as well as nausea, vomiting, and fecal incontinence.

There are various other symptoms that may develop due to the parasitic infection but it’d take far too long to list them all. Knowing about the things that can cause whipworm infection or increase your risk of ingesting parasitic eggs is the best way to protect yourself. While it’s pretty impossible to totally avoid whipworm due to the vastness of its habitat, staying in the know can at least reduce your odds of suffering from the parasitic infection. Let’s get right into it.

1. Contaminated fertilizers

As we all know, fertilizers are poop — though often of animals rather than humans except for some rare cases. The issue with whipworm is the fact that it can occur in other animals, not just humans. This means that it can infect an animal whose manure is being used as fertilizer. This contaminated fertilizer could infect people in quite a few ways.

Firstly, any farmhands who are handling the manure might get the parasitic eggs on their hands then proceed to ingest it when they bite their nails, eat finger foods, or even just get their fingertips near their mouth. This is why farmhands are always instructed to wash their hands after handling manure and wear gloves while pouring the fertilizer on crops. Vegetables fertilized with the contaminated manure can also be a vector for infection if they are not properly washed prior to being consumed.