CASE HISTORY Dotty Was the Two-Year-Old Daughter of a Texas Petroleum Executive.The

CASE HISTORY
Dotty was the two-year-old daughter of a Texas petroleum executive.The family included four children and three dogs.Dotty played outdoors with the other children and ranch animals.She developed a habit of scratching herself on her bottom.Her nanny tried to discourage the habit but did not check further.Within a month,Dotty's mother,an attorney for the petroleum firm,noticed that other members of the family had developed a similar habit,which they ascribed to discomfort with the humid summer.One evening when the nanny was out,Dotty's mother changed her daughter's diaper and noticed white threadlike worms a few millimeters long.A trip to the pediatrician revealed pinworms as well as pinworm eggs.The eggs were observed on a "tape test," a piece of tape that was pressed to Dotty's anus and then placed on a slide for light microscopy.The physician prescribed mebendazole (a microtubule inhibitor)for the entire family,including the nanny and the maid who served dinner.Dotty's mother asked about the dogs;she was told that dogs do not carry pinworms,although they do carry other worms transmissible to humans.Since the drug mebendazole affects only mature worms,further treatment two weeks later was required to attack the eggs and immature worms that had grown in that time.Ultimately,it took six months of treatments to eliminate the infection from the household.
How could Dotty's pinworm infection have been transmitted to other members of the family? Give specific examples of potential transmission in a household.