Research

On August 22nd, Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, reported on the risks and prevention of parasitic fluke worm infection through food at DTU. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh, DTU Vice - provost, and a large number of DTU lecturers and students majoring in the Health Sciences attended.

According to his report, these parasitic diseases are caused by eating food containing parasite larvae of related worm. Manifestations of the disease can be both acute and chronic, both in the whole body and in specific organs. The disease will become worse when the number of worms increases due to the infection. Mostly people become infected with fluke worms due to eating undercooked food such as fish salad, fermented pork rolls, barbecued rare veal and very rare beef. The rate of people infected with parasites through food is very high and increases year by year. The symptoms of these patients can vary but the highest level of infection can cause death.        

Dr. Hung focused on infection of humans with flukes through intermediate hosts including snails and fish. The life cycle of the fluke begins from fluke eggs in the human body, after which they follow “human waste” to the external environment where they contaminate ponds. They can be eaten by snails to become miracidia and in turn these are eaten by fish. People eating fish containing miracidia will be infected. Some common fluke diseases are liver flukes and lung flukes. Patients often have symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and jaundice.        

  

To avoid being infected, Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung gave some solutions for preventing snails from living in ponds and fish from being infected such as removal of sediment from ponds, splashing ponds with lime and cleaning pond walls. However, he emphasized that in order to avoid the disease completely, people have to change their eating habits. People should not eat undercooked food or eat food without knowing its origin.  

DTU students in the Health Sciences are taught about parasites. Hopefully, what Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung shared will support their studies.