Hymenolepis

Hymenolepis is also known as tapeworm infection. Tapeworms are parasites that are found living in the intestines of people. These worms are generally transmitted to humans from animals through infected water or food or even when there is contact in animal or human stools. The state or disease in which is transmitted by animals to humans is known as Zoonosis.
Tapeworms are medically known as Cestodes. A few tapeworms get their name from the meat or the animal through which they come, like the beef tapeworm. Treatment is required if an adult tapeworm is growing in the intestine so as to get away from it.
There are various kinds of tapeworm infections. The most common ones are as follows:
Beef tape worm – taenia saginata this is also known as unarmed tapeworm,
Pork tapeworm – taenia solium also known as measly tapeworm or armed tapeworm, and
Dwarf tapeworm – hymenolepis nana.
A few kinds of tapeworm, like dog tapeworm also known as Echinococcus granulosus or pork tapeworm, may trigger off other diseases as well. This occurs in case the tapeworm’s freshly hatched eggs, the larvae, establish themselves in the region outside the intestine.

Symptoms

Generally no indications appear even if people are infected with adult tapeworms. In a few cases some signs might show, which are quite but normal or might even be due to some other problem. There might be slight ache in the stomach. In a few cases eggs or parts of the tapeworm might appear in the stools.
The various other indications depend of the kind or the tapeworm, they could be dizziness, abdominal pain, convulsions or fits, weight loss and vomiting or nausea, diarrhoea, epigastric pain that is pain in a part of the abdomen exactly above the stomach, a condition in which the food cannot be absorbed well, known as malnutrition, insomnia, swelling in the intestine, generally followed by diarrhoea, known as enteritis, and loss of appetite.
In case of pork or beef tapeworm infection, the indications would be increase in appetite instead of loss of appetite. In rare cases in case of fish tapeworm also known as Diphyllobothrium latum there could be a deficiency in B12 vitamin and this in turn could lead to anaemia.
The larvae of the tapeworm also can be very infectious, as in a few cases the tapeworm might not grow in to an adult in the intestine and the larvae by itself would get into the bloodstream from the intestine wall, from here they could move in establish itself in other areas in the body.
The indications in this kind of an infection depend on the following factors:

The part of the body which gets infected,

What kind of a tapeworm it is, and
The severity of the infection.
The indications in this case would be as follows:

• Jaundice
• Uneasiness or ache in the abdomen,
• A fit but in a conscious state this is called a partial seizure,
• Coughing or even aching sensation in the lungs which could be due to an abscess,
• Intracranial pressure that is augmented pressure in the skull; this could be due to the development of a cyst which would be pressing on the adjoining brain tissue, and blindness.