Intestinal Nematodes

(Russian geogel’minty, “geohelminths”), a group of parasitic worms found in man and animals, which develop (in contrast to biohelminths) without intermediate hosts. The eggs enter the soil with excrement, where they develop to the larval stage in warm weather. Human infestation occurs either through eating unwashed fruit and vegetables, through unwashed hands that have eggs on them (for example, ascarids, whipworm, and pinworms), or through direct contact with the earth where the larvae are living (such as ancylostomes).