There are more than thirty different types of tapeworm infections that may affect the human body. Some tapeworms are only a few inches long; others measure from ten to thirty feet or more in length.
The beef tapeworm, when fully grown, measures fifteen to twenty feet in length. This parasites is transmitted by infected meat from cows. Cattle may develop the disease by grazing on grass contaminated with human wastes and pick thus pick up the eggs of these parasites. Human contract the  disease by eating incompletely cooked meat from such animals.

Pork tapeworms measures six to ten feet in length. Man combines infected by eating in adequately cooked pork. Fish tapeworms, the largest of all, may measure up to thirty feet in length. Female worms may produce as many as a million eggs a day. These are discharged through the human bowel, and when they enter fresh water they hatch and are eaten by water fleas. Here further development takes place. Fresh water fish then eat the infected water fleas, and the fish tapeworm parasites finally lodge in the muscles of the fish.

Large fish then eat the smaller ones, and so the infection is passed on. When humans eat raw or insufficiently cooked fish, the  parasites are released in the human intestine, and fully mature ones develop in five to six weeks. Large game fish are a frequent source of human infection, especially in areas where raw fish are consumed in large quantities.

There are other types of tapeworm infection, such as the dwarf tapeworm, rat tapeworm, and dog tapeworm. These are less commonly seen. The treatment is more or less the same.

The clinical picture varies considerably depending on how may worms are present in the bowel. Tapeworms may be harbored for years without causing much trouble except passage of segments of the tapeworm through the rectum. Some patients complain of hunger pain, which is sharp and stabbing, but is quickly relieved by food. There may be some  anemia which quickly clears up when the  worms are expelled.

Tapeworm Treatment:

Atabrine or quinacrine hydrochloride is the drug of choice for use against all tapeworms. The patient should be on a liquid diet the day preceding treatment, and the evening meal should be omitted. Water maybe given freely. A soapsuds enema should be given in the evening. Next day the patient should remain in bed. Breakfast is omitted. Five tablets of atabrine or quinacrine hydrochloride is the dose for adults. It should be  taken on an empty stomach with half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate in a glass of  water. Children weighing forty to eighty  pounds should be given half this dose.  Those from eighty to one hundred pounds should be given four tablets of atabirine.

Prevention is important as in all other types of infestation. All animal foods, such as pork, beef, and fish. should be thoroughly cooked.