Humans are infected when they eat raw or rare beef containing cysticerci. Although a single worm is usually found, multiple worms can be present. Many infections are without symptoms, and the carrier may be unaware of their infection. Taenia saginata infection result in mild symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal discomfort, diarrhoea and weight loss. Detached segments crawling from the anus can cause some discomfort.
Worms can survive many years in the intestine unless removed by medication.
Drug therapy is usually very effective, but retreatment may be necessary. Consult your family doctor. The bladder worm is digested out of the meat in the stomach, attaches to the intestinal lining and grows to maturity in two to three months. The egg-bearing segments at the end of the chain break off and crawl from the anus or pass in the stool. One infected person can pass 750,000 eggs each day in their feces as individual eggs or as intact segments, each containing thousands of eggs.