GUINEA-WORM DISEASE

Dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease).

Dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease) is a parasitic disease that is limited to remote, rural villages in 13 sub-Saharan African countries that do not have access to safe drinking water. It is one the next diseases targeted for eradication by the World Health Organization. Guinea worm disease is transmitted by drinking water containing copepods (water fleas) that are infected with Dracunculiasis...

Guinea-Worm Disease: Case Notes

The last bastions of guinea-worm disease

A terrible itchiness is the first symptom of guinea-worm disease or dracunculiasis. Next, explains Adama Guindo, a village chief in eastern Mali, an agonizing blister appears on an ankle or foot. “You don’t see the worm to begin with,” he says. When the creature’s head emerges several days later, the pain is unbearable. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness follow. “You can’t work or sleep,...

Dracunculiasis (guinea Worm Disease): Case Study of the Effort to Eradicate Guinea Worm

Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) is a water-borne parasitic infection that is intimately tied to the environment and to human behavior. The campaign to eradicate this disease lasted nearly 30 years and provides many lessons that may be adapted for attacking other problems successfully, particularly where change in human habits is required in order to mitigate or interrupt transmission. The ...

Guinea-Worm