Guinea Worm Disease
Guinea Worm Disease
What is guinea worm disease?
Guinea worm disease is a parasitic worm infection that occurs mainly in Africa. It is also called dracunculiasis [dra-KUNK-you-LIE-uh-sis].
What is the infectious agent that causes guinea worm disease?
Guinea worm disease is caused by Dracunculus medinensis, a threadlike parasitic worm that grows and matures in people. Worms grow up to 3 feet long and are as wide as a paper clip wire.
How do people get Guinea worm disease?
People get infected when they drink standing water containing a tiny water flea that is infected with the even tinier larvae of the Guinea worm. Over the course of a year in the human body, the immature worms pierce the intestinal wall, grow to adulthood, and mate. The males die, and the females make their way through the body, maturing to a length of as much as 3 feet, and ending up near the surface of the skin, usually in the lower limbs. The worms cause swelling and painful, burning blisters. To soothe the burning, sufferers tend to go into the water, where the blisters burst, allowing the worm to emerge and release a new generation of millions of larvae. In the water, the larvae are swallowed by small water fleas, and the cycle begins again.
Where is Guinea worm disease found?
Except for a few remote villages in the Rajastan desert of India and in Yemen, Guinea worm disease now occurs only in Africa. Infected areas in Africa lie in a band between the Sahara and the equator. More than half of all cases of Guinea worm disease are reported from southern Sudan. Other countries with more than 1,000 cases each year are Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Mali, Uganda, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast. Smaller numbers of cases are reported from Mauritania, Ethiopia, Chad, Senegal, and Cameroon. Most cases occur in poor rural villages that are not visited by tourists.
What are the signs and symptoms of Guinea worm disease?
A few days to hours before the worm emerges, the person might develop a fever and have swelling and pain in the area where the worm is. A blister develops and then opens into a wound. When the wound is immersed in water, the worm begins to emerge. Most worms appear on the legs and feet, but they can occur anywhere on the body. After the worm emerges, the wound often becomes painfully swollen and infected.
How soon after exposure do symptoms appear?
Infected persons usually do not have symptoms until about a year after they drink water contaminated with infected water fleas.
How is Guinea worm disease diagnosed?
Diagnosis is usually made by seeing the adult worm protruding from a skin sore.
Who is at risk for Guinea worm disease?
Anyone who drinks standing pond or well water contaminated by persons with Guinea worm infection is at risk. People who live in villages where the infection is common are at greatest risk.
What is the treatment for Guinea worm disease?
There is no cure. The only treatment is to remove the worm over many weeks by winding it around a small stick and pulling it out a tiny bit at a time. Sometimes the worm can be pulled out completely within a few days, but the process usually takes weeks or months.
No medication is available to end or prevent infection. However, the worm can be surgically removed before the wound begins to swell. Antihistamines and antibiotics can reduce swelling and ease removal of the worm.
What complications can result from Guinea worm disease?
During the time that the worm is emerging and being removed, the affected person suffers intense pain and often cannot work or resume daily activities for months. Farmers cannot tend their crops, parents cannot care for children, and children miss school. Even after the worms are gone, people are often left with scarring and permanent crippling. Infection does not produce immunity, and many people in affected villages suffer the disease year after year.
How common is Guinea worm disease?
Currently, many organizations, including UNICEF, the World Health Organization, CDC, and the Carter Presidential Center, are helping the governments of countries where Guinea worm is found to eliminate the disease worldwide. Since 1986, when an estimated 3.5 million people were infected, the international campaign has eliminated much of the disease and prevented millions of cases. In 1995, the total number of infected people worldwide had dropped to about 130,000, less than 4% of the total in 1986.
How can Guinea worm disease be prevented?
Breaking the cycle of infection means keeping Guinea worm larvae out of the drinking water. Infection can easily be avoided, even in areas where the disease is very common, by using only water that has been filtered or obtained from a safe source. Water can be boiled, filtered through tightly woven nylon cloth, or treated with a larvae-killing chemical. People with an open Guinea worm wound should not enter ponds or wells used for drinking water.
This fact sheet is for information only and is not meant to be used for self-diagnosis or as a substitute for consultation with a health-care provider. If you have any questions about the disease described above, consult a health-care provider.