Emergency medicine physician Dmitry Molodoy has warned Russians who own pets against a common health habit. He shared his concerns in a post on his Telegram channel.
Molodoy said neither children nor adults should take deworming medication as a preventive measure, even if they live in close contact with animals at home. He said that even if an animal has an acute worm infestation, the parasites generally cannot survive in a human host, with rare exceptions.
Different rules for cats and dogs
Molodoy said the opposite is true for cats and dogs, which do need such medication. He explained that animals cannot be taught personal hygiene practices, which significantly raises their risk of infection compared with humans.
People should only take deworming drugs if laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of worms in their body, or if they show clear symptoms of infection, Molodoy wrote.
Gastroenterologist Evgenia Melnikova previously warned that food poisoning becomes more common in summer due to improper food storage, naming diarrhea as one of its symptoms.
