Guinea Worm

Dracunculiasis

Common Name of OrganismLatin NameBody Parts AffectedDiagnosis TypeWhere FoundSource of Parasite
Guinea worm – DracunculiasisDracunculus medinensisSubcutaneous tissues, muscleVisual inspection of skin blister / ulcerVarieties of this worm seen in most tropical areasHumans, copepods, frogs, fish, various mammals, water sources

Dormancy Period: One year or longer. The first signs of dracunculiasis occur around a year after infection, as the full-grown female worm prepares to leave the infected person’s body.

About a year after the initial infection, the female migrates to the skin, forms an ulcer, and emerges. When the wound touches fresh water, the female spews a milky-white substance containing hundreds of thousands of larvae into the water. Over the next several days as the female emerges from the wound, she can continue to discharge larvae into surrounding water. The larvae are eaten by copepods (small aquatic crustaceans), and after two to three weeks of development, they are infectious to humans again. Infected people commonly harbor multiple worms – on average 1.8 worms per person, but as many as 40 – which will emerge from separate blisters at the same time. 90% of worms emerge from the legs or feet. However, worms can emerge from anywhere on the body.

Humans typically get infected when they unintentionally ingest copepods while drinking water or exposure while swimming. In some cases, infected copepods are consumed by fish or frogs, which are then consumed by humans or other animals, passing along the D. medinensis larvae.

Other Dracunculus species can infect snakes, turtles, and other mammals. Animal infections are most widespread in snakes, with nine different species of Dracunculus described in snakes in the United States, Brazil, India, Vietnam, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Benin, Madagascar, and Italy. The only other reptiles affected are snapping turtles, with cases of infected common snapping turtles described in several US states and a single infected South American snapping turtle described in Costa Rica.

Dracunculiasis is now rare, with 14 cases reported worldwide in 2023 and 13 in 2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Dracunculiasis%22&t=ftsa&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Therapure Remedies:  Neem Soap with scrub glove, Vita Bath with CP SO, CP W, PB BVC, CP C, CP 1-5m CP PAR-D. CP PAR-M, CP PIN, CP SPQ, garlic cloves.

Jamu Jo: JJ 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15.

IV Therapy: Glutathione, DMSO, CP ID, CP IN, CP IZ, CP IS, Lysine, Magnesium, NAC, Vitamin B Complex, Vitamin D, Zinc.

No conventional medicine to kill D. medinensis or prevent it from causing disease once within the body is currently prescribed. Instead, treatment focuses on slowly and carefully removing the worm from the wound over days to weeks. Prevention is the best cure.