Dracunculiasis

Was flipping through my medical book that day looking for a description of "Typhoid Fever" and I just had to chance upon this word.

Dracunculiasis.

Captured my attention almost immediately. Sounds like "Dracula" doesn't it or "Dragon"? Uber cool.

What is it?

1. Is latin for 'little dragon'
2. More commonly known as the Guinea Worm Disease.
3. An infection by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis
4. Life cycle starts from larvae in fresh water, water fleas ingest it and they develop into its infective stage in these microscopic insects.
5. Humans drink the water, and stomach acid kills the water flea but not the larvae. The larvae goes to the intestines and gets into the body cavity.
6. A female worm copulates with a male worm and absorbs the male after he dies.
7. The female grows into 60-100 cm ( 1 bloody metre), looks like a cooked spaghetti noodle and her body cavity is filled with baby larvae.

Right up to now, the progression seems normal (except for the rather disgusting 'absorbing the male' part, hm and also the spaghetti part) . I was about to turn the page away - I mean all living things do mate sometime or other... but it was a good thing I didn't, as IT GETS BETTER.

8. So this female worm in the body now migrates to the cooler area of the body, usually the lower limbs.
9. She/It Ulcerates out of the human skin by causing a blister - which is extremely painful and has a burning sensation. About 24-72 hours later, the worm emerges OUT of the skin

!!@#$%^&*!!! Oh no, no... it doesn't come All the way out.

10. By this time, the human host is hurting and being human, soaks his/her leg in water to ease off the burning sensation and here, the female worm releases a milky white substance into the water, which contains about 100 thousand larvae.
11. By now the blister has become a unrelenting ulcer.

Eurgh!
How Incredibly, Utterly DISGUSTING.

12. The best way to treat is to slowly roll the worm round a stick and let it take its own time to emerge fully, as the least thing you want is for it to break off and leave half of its body in your body. This emerging process can take up to days or even weeks.

P/S: If surgical facilities are available, slice the leg open and get the bugger out immediately.

Shocker. Imagine walking around and living with a horrible worm dangling from your leg.

Like a piece of spaghetti - ahem, I mean, string.