Guinea worm disease also known as Dracunculiasis is a rare type of parasitic infection caused by drinking stagnated water. This disease is a rare type of infection occurring in some underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Mali and remote parts of Africa. The worm gets into the person in the form of larvae when he/she drinks the contaminated stagnant water from the pond and resides inside the body. After about a year the larvae grows into an adult worm and emerges out of the body.
It can cause symptoms of fever and swelling. There is no treatment for guinea worm disease and the only way to prevent this infection is to drink clean water. In the underdeveloped countries and in some remote regions potable water will not be available to drink and hence poor people may drink stagnated water from the ponds. This can cause infection. Only few cases of GWD have been reported so far.
Mode of Transmission :
When a person drinks pond water or any kind of stagnated water that contains the larval stage of guinea worm, it enters into his body. After a year or so, the adult worm would emerge from his body mostly from the skin on his feet. As the person continues to ignore the worm and when he enters any source of water bodies the worm would emit larvae into the water. This water again gets contaminated and infects other person when he/she drinks it accidentally.
The larval form of guinea worm remains in the body of copepods (small organism present in water) and enters into the body of another person when he/she drinks the water. The larvae of the worm would enter into the small intestine and remains inside the wall of the intestine for about a year. When it grows into complete adult worm measuring 2-3 feet long it would migrate within the body and finally emerge out of the body from the skin.