Before we answer this question, let’s explain what biohazards and roundworms are. Roundworms are called nematodes which constitutes worms with long round body. Roundworms belong to kingdom : Animalia, Phylum: Nematoda, class of chromadorea, and order of ascaridida.
Roundworms may grow to several centimetres in length. Ascaris lumbricoides is a parasitic ringworm that dwells in the gut of human.
What are Biohazards?
Biological hazards or simply biohards are biological substances or bioagents and their byproducts that constitute threat to humans, animals etc. They include; animal waste, human blood and blood products, microbiological waste (including ringworms), human bodily fluids, pathological waste, sharp material.
Roundworms happens to fall under microbiological waste type of biohazard. Roundworms are small organism that lives in small intestine and inflict serious damage to the host.
Generally, roundworm is a parasite that lives mostly in the digestive sytem of the host especially animal and humans . By definition, a parasite is any organism that lives in another organism called the host.
Some human parasites lives externally like the mites and scabies. The parasites that lives inside the host is known as the protozoa.
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Diseases Caused By Roundworms
Some of the disease caused by roundworms are:
- Hookworm Disease
- Ascariasis
- Pinworm Infection
- Strongyloidiasis
- Trichinosis
- Whipworm Disease
Some Common Features of Roundworms
For us to know wether roundworms are what type of biohazard, we must first examined its features
(1) Roundworm has a complete digestive system which includes the mouth and the anus as compared to flatworm which has an incomplete digestive systems. The large digestive organ of the roundworms is known as the gut which produces enzymes that breaks down food.
(2) It is worth mentioning that roundworms have simple central nervous systems with four nerves connected from the the head to the bottom.
(3) Also, some roundworms protozoan single-cell parasite which has chemoreceptors for sensing of chemicals.
(4) Roundworms are dioecious. They exists as males and females with similar features . Research have it that the males are smaller than the females.
Numbers of People Infected by Roundworms
Roundworms affected mainly people in African contnent and Carribean countries including Brazil but less in America , canada and other european countries. Roundworms affect mostly children because of unclean drinking water and bad environment. About 28000 species of roundworm are known, though scientist have speculated that they might be over a million species of roundworms.
Statistics shows that roudworms affected about 14.5 million children in African continent with a lot of illness ranging from diarrhea, cholera and fever.
How Does Human Get Infected With Roundworms
The entrance routes of roundworm into animal and human body basically depends on the type of roundworm.
A lot of these parasitic organism entered into the body through the mouth.
One gets infected by having contact with the infected with eggs without washing hands. This routes is known as the fecal-oral route. Some roundworms infection may also result from touching eggs that was laid near the opening of the buttocks or anus.
The most unfortunate situation is that most persons accidentally ingest roundworm eggs through food preparation by touching soil that is contaminated with roundworm.
This will now lead to the hatching of the eggs inside the body resulting into ill-health and diseases. Unclean and dirty environment may serve as a host for roundworm
It is important to mention that some animals like the pigs who eats majorly on muds and conterminant has abundance of roundworms. It is therefore advised that such meat should and must be well cooked to destroy the eggs of the worm.
Hence, the egg has the ability of thriving at moderate temperature and when taken as food entered the body to cause infection and other diseases.
A large number of roundworms ends up in the small intestines thereby causing serious infection and diseases.
Before, the end of this post we will give a precise answer to the question “Roundworms are what type of biohazard”
Importance of Roundworms to Mankind
Roundworms feeds on bacteria, fungi and other decaying matter. That means its helps in the breaking down of oraginc matter which plays a mojor role in the carbon cycle. Therefore roundworms are what type of biohazard is question many people are asking because of its adverse effect on the host
Considering all the discussion we have made on this post concerning the roundworm, we can conclude that roundworms are contagious biohazards which are microbiological biohazards