Hymenolepiasis - Hymenolepis Diminuta

Hymenolepis Diminuta

The risk of human infection from H. diminuta is very low, since its main host is the rat. Also known as the rat tapeworm, H. diminuta adults live and mate in the bowels of rats. Eggs of H. diminuta are excreted by the rats as droppings, which are frequently consumed by beetles. Once inside the beetle, the eggs mature into a cysticercoid. The juvenile tapeworms claw their way out of the beetle gut into the circulatory system by means of their three pairs of hooks. There, they wait for a rat to ingest the host beetle, where they mature to adult form, lay eggs and restart the entire cycle.

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