Adieu! Guinea worm
Abdur Rab, M.
Jpma. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association 39(3): 83-88
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0030-9982 PMID: 2525629 Document Number: 336821
Some 10-48 million people in East and West Africa, India and Pakistan suffer from drancontiasis. The disease is transmitted only in drinking water contaminated with cyclops containing infective-stage larvae, and is therefore in theory entirely preventable. It is likely that most people recover fully after the worm is expelled, but the disease is debilitating for a month or more in the acute phase and may be permanently disabling if complications, usually due to secondary bacterial infections, occur. Drugs have a minimal effect and treatment is based on the mechanical withdrawal of the worm after it has penetrated out through the skin. The social and economic consequences of endemic disease are enormous.