Echinococcosis: Prevention

To prevent echinococcosis, care must be taken to reduce risk factors.

Risk factors of alveolar echinococcosis

Behavioral risk factors

  • Direct contact with infected animals (fur).
  • Smear infection
  • Work with contaminated soil
  • Infection through contaminated water and contaminated food is questionable

Risk factors of cystic echinococcosis

Behavioral risk factors

  • Direct contact with infected animals (fur).
  • Smear infection
  • Work with contaminated soil
  • Consumption of contaminated food

Primary prevention

  • For jam made from collected wild berries: wash and boil well (fox tapeworm eggs die at 60 °C).
  • Killing the eggs is possible by brief boiling or freezing for several days at minus 80 degrees.
  • Aside: picking berries or mushrooms has not been identified as a risk factor in any study. This is not surprising, since one would have to ingest several hundred eggs of the fox tapeworm to become infected.