Can Worms Live in Pillows?

Various types of parasitic worms can infect human hosts, including tape worms, round worms and pinworms. Many parasites enter the human body via the digestive tract; entering when improperly prepared foods or unsanitary water is consumed. Other parasites can actually enter through the skin, or through the nose or mouth; in each of these cases poor hygiene can contribute to infection.

Considerations

• While it is fully grown worms that are generally a hazard to human health, the eggs are the primary means of infection. Worms themselves do not live for long outside of a human host, so the likelihood of adult worms remaining in bedding or in pillows is slim. The tiny eggs, however, can remain, sometimes indefinitely, in bedding, clothing or on pillows, and enter the body when they are breathed in by their human host.

Types

• While there are several varieties of parasitic worms, the most common variety to be picked up from bedclothes are pinworms. Pinworms are also known as thread worms, due to the fact that the adult worms bear a resemblance to small white pieces of thread. Pinworms live in the rectum, and the adult females will emerge at night to lay eggs on the skin around the anus. This activity causes itching, and the infected person will often scratch, causing eggs to become lodged under the fingernails and be spread to the surrounding sheets and pillows.

Prevention/Solution

• In addition to taking health care practitioner-prescribed oral or topical medications, the spread of pinworms can be diminished by frequently washing the bedding, clothing and underclothes of the infected person. The bedding should be washed in hot, soapy water and dried at high heat as well. Take care not to shake the laundry, as this can cause the eggs to become airborne, causing other members of the household to become infected.