What are the symptoms for Guinea worm disease?
Symptoms can include the following:Slight fever.Itchy rash.Nausea.Vomiting.Diarrhea.Dizziness.
Is Guinea worm disease fatal?
Guinea-worm disease is rarely fatal. Frequently, however, the patient remains sick for several months, mainly because: The emergence of the worm, sometimes several, is accompanied by painful oedema, intense generalised pruritus, blistering and an ulceration of the area from which the worm emerges.
How long does it take to get a Guinea worm out?
Because the worm can be as long as one meter in length, full extraction can take several days to weeks. Afterwards, topical antibiotics are applied to the wound to prevent secondary bacterial infections. The affected body part is then bandaged with fresh gauze to protect the site.
Is Guinea worm painful?
People in remote rural communities who have Guinea worm disease often do not have access to health care. When the adult female worm comes out of the skin, it can be very painful, take time to remove, and be disabling. The wound caused by the emerging worm may develop a secondary bacterial infection.
How does Guinea worm exit the body?
After ingestion, the worms penetrate the digestive tract and escape into the body, where they develop over the course of a year. Eventually, the adult worm migrates to an exit site – usually a lower limb – and induces an intensely painful blister on the skin.
Where is Guinea worm disease most common?
Guinea worm disease, a neglected tropical disease (NTD), is caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. The disease affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink. There is neither a drug treatment for Guinea worm disease nor a vaccine to prevent it.
How do you know if you've got worms?
find a large worm or large piece of worm in your poo. have a red, itchy worm-shaped rash on your skin. have sickness, diarrhoea or a stomach ache for longer than 2 weeks.
What causes worms in Virgina?
Causes of threadworms A threadworm infection is passed from person to person by swallowing threadworm eggs. A female threadworm can lay thousands of tiny eggs around the anus or vagina.
Where is Guinea worm disease most common?
Guinea worm disease, a neglected tropical disease (NTD), is caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. The disease affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink. There is neither a drug treatment for Guinea worm disease nor a vaccine to prevent it.
What causes worms in Virgina?
Causes of threadworms A threadworm infection is passed from person to person by swallowing threadworm eggs. A female threadworm can lay thousands of tiny eggs around the anus or vagina.
Where is Guinea worm disease found?
When The Carter Center began to provide technical and financial assistance to national eradication programs in 1986, Guinea worm disease was found in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. Today the disease remains in six countries, all in Africa: Sudan, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger.
How do you know if you've got worms?
find a large worm or large piece of worm in your poo. have a red, itchy worm-shaped rash on your skin. have sickness, diarrhoea or a stomach ache for longer than 2 weeks.
Overview
- Dracunculiasis is an infection caused by the nematode Dracunculus medinensis, also known as the guinea worm. [1] D medinensis is in the order Spirurida, an order of parasites that includes the filariae Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Loa loa.
Diagnosis
- Guinea worm disease is diagnosed through a simple physical exam. Health care providers look for the telltale white, stringy worm poking through the blister once the affected area has been immersed in water. There are currently no diagnostic tests available to identify those infected before symptoms appear.
- There are no specific laboratory tests to confirm a diagnosis of dracunculiasis. Diagnosis is often reached during clinical examination when the white string-like worm is seen in an ulcer. A history of traveling to endemic areas usually confirms the diagnosis along withe progression of symptoms and skin ulcers. Dead calcified worms may be seen on x-ray. Blood tests such as a c…
Life Cycle
- When people drink water that has been contaminated with the copepods, the copepods die and release the larvae into the human digestive tract. There, they make their way through the infected persons stomach and intestinal walls, eventually reaching subcutaneous tissues (the space just beneath the skin). The larvae stay in the body for about a year as they mature into adult worms. …
- When a person drinks contaminated water from ponds or shallow open wells, the cyclops is dissolved by the gastric acid of the stomach and the larvae are released and migrate through the intestinal wall. After 100 days, the male and female meet and mate. The male becomes encapsulated and dies in the tissues while the female moves down the muscle planes. After abo…
- 1. Humans become infected by drinking unfiltered water containing copepods (small crustaceans) which are infected with the larvae of D. medinensis. 2. Following ingestion, the copepods die and release the larvae. The larvae penetrate the host stomach and intestinal wall to enter the abdominal cavity and retroperitoneal space. 3. After maturation into adults and mating…
- The Cyclops species of fresh water fleas (copepods) are small crustaceans that are 2 to 3 mm in length. These five-legged invertebrates have a hard outer shell and are closely related to shrimp and crabs. It derives its names from the single black or red eye in the middle of its head. The water fleas may ingest the Dracunculus (guinea worm) larvae and humans then consume water …
Treatment
- Like many neglected tropical diseases, there is no cure or specific medication to treat Guinea worm disease. De-worming medications used for other parasitic infections don't appear to work to treat Guinea worm infections or prevent symptoms from occurring. Instead, treatment typically involves removing the worm through a long and painstaking process. Medications like ibuprofe…
- 1. The most common treatment still involves wrapping the worm around a stick at the skin surface, and wrapping or winding the worm a few centimetres each day. 1. This process can take many days, but must be slow to avoid breakage and leaving behind a portion of the worm. 2. Leaving a portion of the dead worm within the host's body increases the risk of infection, and ca…
- There is no specific medication that can treat dracunculiasis. Instead the worm should be extracted, the wound disinfected and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prescribed for the pain and inflammation. Antiparasitic drugs may be helpful to expedite the extraction process. Systemic antibiotics are only prescribed if a secondary bacterial infection has set in. Su…
Symptoms
- People infected with Guinea worm dont typically have any symptoms until about a year after they're first infected. Its not until the worm is about to erupt from the skin that people start to feel sick. What that happens, the symptoms of Guinea worm disease can include: Without proper treatment, wounds caused by the worm can become infected by bacteria, leading to sepsis, sept…
- Patient with guinea worm disease are largely asymptomatic until the worm erupts. Prior to eruption the following non-specific symptoms may be seen : 1. Low-grade fever 2. Itchy skin rash 3. Nausea 4. Vomiting 5. Diarrhea 6. Shortness of breath 7. Dizziness...
Prevention
- No vaccine exists against Guinea worm, but the disease can be completely prevented by ensuring safe drinking water and not allowing the adult worms to disperse their larvae. The best way to prevent infection is to drink water only from uncontaminated water sources, like hand-dug wells and boreholes. Many communities affected by Guinea worm disease, however, lack access to cl…
- No drug is available to prevent or heal this parasitic disease exclusively associated with drinking contaminated water. Dracunculiasis is, however, relatively easy to eliminate and eventually eradicate.
- During the last 25 years, concerted efforts to eradicate the guinea worm have been undertaken and these have resulted in a reduction of more than 99% of worldwide cases of dracunculiasis. Thanks to a relentless campaign, this is poised to become the first disease since smallpox to be pushed into oblivion. The Carter Center has led the effort to eradicate the disease, along with th…
- 1. Drink only water from underground sources free from contamination, eg borehole or hand-dug wells. 2. Prevent persons with an open Guinea worm ulcer from entering ponds and wells used for drinking water. 3. Always filter drinking water, eg cloth or nylon mesh filter. 4. Additionally, unsafe sources of drinking water can be treated with an approved larvicide.
Epidemiology
- The disease is largely seasonal, striking more frequently during the rainy or dry season depending on the area, and is not spread from person to person.
- Guinea worm disease remains endemic in 3 countries: Sudan, Mali, and Ethiopia and fewer than 1,800 cases were reported in the world in 2010. The most prominent hot spot for guinea worm disease is South Sudan, which harbors 94% of current cases. Sporadic violence and civil unrest in Sudan and Mali poses the greatest threat to the final eradication of dracunculiasis.
- 1. The 'Dracunculiasis Eradication Program' has been very effective. Reported cases of Guinea worm disease have continued to decrease progressively. There were only 3,190 confirmed cases in 2009 compared with 25,217 cases in 2006 and almost 3.5 million cases in 1986. 2. Asia has been declared free of dracunculiasis since 2005. Dracunculiasis now occurs only in rural, isolate…
Prognosis
- The pain caused by the condition can be debilitating, and many are left with lifelong disabilities. Thanks to global efforts to stamp out the disease, however, Guinea worm is now on the brink of eradication.
- Guinea-worm disease is rarely fatal. Frequently, however, the patient remains sick for several months, mainly because:
- Prognosis is usually very good with or without treatment, unless any secondary infection remains untreated.
Causes
- Guinea worm disease is caused by the parasitic worm Dracunculus medinensis, commonly called Guinea worm. The way the worm gets into the body and makes people sick is fairly complex, and it all starts with water fleas.
- Guinea worm disease is an infection by the Dracunculus mediensis nematode. The disease is known as dracunculiasis. The parasite has to complete its life cycle in a human hosts and copepods (water fleas). Humans ingest infested copepods incidentally when drinking contaminated water. The larvae have a very short lifespan in fresh water of about 2 to 3 days unl…
Biology
- These small crustaceans (known as copepods or water fleas) live in stagnant water and eat the Guinea worm larvae. Inside, the larvae go through changes, and after two weeks, they are ready to be infective.
