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Doesa Tapeworms can be transmitted through a mothers' milk?

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Final answer:

Tapeworms are typically transmitted to humans through the consumption of contaminated, undercooked meat, and not through mother's milk. Their complex lifecycle usually involves eggs being passed through feces and ingested by an intermediate host, leading to infection. Direct transmission of tapeworms through mother's milk is not a standard aspect of their lifecycle.

Step-by-step explanation:

Tapeworms, such as Taenia solium and Echinococcus granulosus, are parasites with complex life cycles that often involve more than one host species. They are generally transmitted to humans through the consumption of contaminated, undercooked meat like pork, beef, or fish, rather than direct transmission through a mother's milk. In the life cycle of a tapeworm, eggs are excreted by the primary host and then ingested by intermediate hosts, where they hatch into larvae called oncospheres that migrate to tissues and form cysts. For example, the dog tapeworm, Echinococcus granulosus, forms hydatid cysts in intermediate hosts like sheep and cattle, and these cysts can sometimes be accidentally transmitted to humans who ingest the eggs. However, transmission through mother's milk is not typically a part of the tapeworm lifecycle.

When T. solium larvae form cysts in tissues, the condition is known as cysticercosis, but this occurs through ingestion of eggs via the fecal-oral route, and does not implicate transmission via mother's milk. A mother can transmit some infections through breast milk, but with tapeworms, it is much more common for transmission to occur via ingestion of the parasite's eggs from contaminated food or water, particularly undercooked or raw meat.

User Roland Ruul
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