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Definition
Threadworm infection is an intestinal disease, which occasionally spreads to the skin, caused by a type of parasitic roundworm (helminth). In untreated patients, the disease has a high rate of reinfection caused by worms already present in the body. This type of disease recurrence is called autoinfection. Because of autoinfection, threadworms can remain inside humans for as long as 45 years after the initial infestation.
Description
Threadworm infection, which is also called strongyloidiasis, occurs in most countries of the world but is natural to (endemic in) tropical and subtropical climates. Strongyloidiasis is less common than other parasitic infections but may affect as much as 25% of the population in some developing countries. In the United States, threadworm infection is most likely to be found among immigrants; returning travelers or military personnel; people who live in parts of Appalachia and the southeastern states; and persons in homes for the retarded and similar institutions.
Human beings are universally susceptible to threadworm infection, although adults and older children are at greater risk of infection than younger children. The disease does not confer immunity. In addition to humans, threadworms can infect dogs, cats, horses, pigs, rats, and monkeys.
— Rebecca J. Frey, PhD
