Question

Patients with Taenia saginata show more symptoms like Taenia Solium because
A) Both Taenia saginata and Taenia solium are similar in size.
B) Taenia saginata tapeworm is smaller in size.
C) Taenia soliumtapeworm is larger in size.
D) Taenia saginata tapeworm is larger in size.

Answer 1

Hint: Taenia saginata is an intestinal parasite whose length can be 10 meter. On the other hand, the length of Taenia solium ranges from 2 to 7 m. Both parasites are responsible for causing Taeniasis and cysticercosis infections in human and cattle respectively.

Complete answer:
Patients with T. saginata taeniasis often experience more symptoms than those with T. solium or T. asiatica infections. This happens because the T. saginata tapeworm is larger in size (up to 10 m) than the other two tapeworms (usually 3 m).In regards to symptoms, we can see pain in stomach, loss of appetite and severe problem in digestion.In visible symptoms of taeniasis, we find that the passing of proglottids through the anus and in the feces. The proglottids are the segments of the tapeworms. As the tapeworm saginata is longer than its solium counterpart, these types of symptoms are more found in the cases of former one.So, the right answer would be T. saginata tapeworm is larger in size and that’s why the patients with T. saginata show more symptoms.

Hence option ‘D’ is the correct answer.

Note: According to the structure and nature, Taenia Saginatahas a strong resemblance to the other human tapeworms, such as Taenia asiatica and Taenia solium. It is typically larger and longer. Like other tapeworms, it also causes taeniasis inside the human intestine. Consequently, the types of taeniasis are also different due to these different tapeworms.