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Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)

Echinococcosis (hydatidosis) · Echinokokóza

What it is

Larval cysts of dog and fox tapeworms: the cystic form (sheep–dog cycle) grows slowly as fluid-filled balls, mostly in the liver and lungs; the alveolar form, from fox tapeworm across Central Europe including Czechia, grows into the liver like a cancer.

Symptoms & signs

  • Often none for years
  • upper right abdominal pain or mass
  • cough, chest pain or coughing up cyst fluid
  • jaundice
  • allergic reaction or shock if a cyst ruptures

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Sudden rash, swelling and faintness (a burst cyst)
  • call 112 / 911 now Coughing blood or salty fluid
  • see a doctor soon Yellow skin or eyes
  • see a doctor soon Lump or pain under the right ribs

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Ultrasound staging, CT or MRI, and serology
  • watch-and-wait for inactive calcified cysts
  • Albendazole for months; for the alveolar form for years or for life after surgery trials support
  • PAIR: puncture, aspiration, scolicide injection, re-aspiration for suitable cysts
  • surgery, careful not to spill cyst contents
  • radical resection or liver transplant for alveolar disease

Natural & lifestyle

  • Deworm dogs with praziquantel
  • no raw offal for dogs
  • hand washing after handling dogs
  • wash foraged berries and vegetables

Emerging & experimental

  • EG95 vaccine for sheep
  • new benzimidazoles and drug combinations

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Garlic, curcumin and other plant extracts — kill cyst larvae in the laboratory; no human trials early / small studies
  • Herbal liver cleanses — cysts do not dissolve; risk of delay anecdotal / traditional

ICD codes