Freshly passed eggs are not yet infective. From egg ingestion to new egg passage takes approximately 2 months. Approximately 4 million people in the US are infected, mostly in the rural southeast. Infection with A lumbricoides is very rarely fatal, but death may occur because of mechanical intestinal obstruction. A case of relapsing pneumothorax resulting from inflammation due to migrating A lumbricoides larvae has been described in a child.
Most patients are asymptomatic.
To become infected, patients need to consume soil contaminated 2-3 weeks before with infected feces. Infected patients are not directly contagious. Ascariasis is caused by direct or indirect consumption of soil that has been contaminated by infected feces. Stool for ova and parasites Characteristic eggs are seen easily on stool exam. Symptomatic treatment with inhaled beta-agonists Steroids may worsen symptoms.