Diagnosis is by laboratory detection of the hookworms' eggs in the stool. Endemic in the tropics, this worm is generally found in the same climate and unsanitary conditions favorable to the spread of hookworm. Like the hookworm, the threadworm is usually contracted when larvae in the soil attach themselves to bare feet and then enter the body. After entering its human host, this parasite's larvae are either released into the intestines and passed with stools, or attach to the intestinal wall and prolong the infection. This parasite causes epigastric pain and tenderness, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Diagnosis is made by detecting the larvae in the stool.
In all that time they suffered intermittent, unexplained abdominal pain that was not diagnosed and treated until the 1970s.