Contagious: Toxocariasis
| About contagion: Contagion and contagiousness refers to how easily the spread of Toxocariasis is possible from one person to another. Other words for contagion include "infection", "infectiousness", "transmission" or "transmissability". Contagiousness has nothing to do with genetics or inheriting diseases from parents. For an overview of contagion, see Introduction to Contagion. |
Contagion summary: You or your children can become infected after accidentally ingesting (swallowing) infective Toxocara eggs from larvae in soil or other contaminated surfaces. 1
Contagion discussion:
The most common Toxocara
parasite of concern to humans is T. canis, which puppies usually
contract from the mother before birth or from her milk. The larvae mature
rapidly in the puppy’s intestines; when the pup is 3 or 4 weeks old,
they begin to produce large numbers of eggs that contaminate the
environment through the animal’s stool. The eggs soon develop into
infective larvae. 1
Footnotes:
1. excerpt from Toxocariasis: DPD
Last revision:
June 13, 2003
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