Editorial Note: Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection caused by
Dracunculus medinensis. Persons become infected by drinking water from stagnant sources (e.g., ponds, open wells, or pools) contaminated by copepods (water fleas) that contain immature forms of the parasite.
Editorial Note: Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection caused by
Dracunculus medinensis. Persons become infected by drinking water from ponds contaminated by copepods (water fleas) that contain immature forms of the parasite.
Editorial Note: Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection caused by
Dracunculus medinensis. Persons become infected by drinking water from ponds contaminated by copepods (water fleas) that contain immature forms of the parasite; 1 year after entering the infected person, adult worms approximately 1 meter (40 inches) in length emerge through skin lesions, usually on the lower limbs, which frequently develop severe secondary bacterial infections.
Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection caused by a filarial worm (
Dracunculus medinensis [i.e., Guinea worm]) that is transmitted through contaminated drinking water.
Ghana and Nigeria, the two countries with the highest number of known cases of dracunculiasis (i.e., Guinea worm disease) in 1991, recorded substantial declines in the reported incidence of the parasitic infection caused by
Dracunculus medinensis. Provisional surveillance data from 1991 indicate that the combined incidence of dracunculiasis declined 32.7% in the two countries since 1990 and 57.5% since 1989 (Figure 1).
Dracunculiasis (caused by the parasite
Dracunculus medinensis) is currently endemic in parts of India, Pakistan, and 17 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'lvoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda), where over 100 million persons are at risk of having the infection (Figure 1) 3,4).
This disease is contracted only by persons who drink water contaminated by tiny copepods containing larval stages of the parasite
Dracunculus medinensis. The infection can be prevented by providing safe sources of drinking water, teaching populations at risk to boil water or filter it through a fine cloth, or treating the water with temephos (Abate[R](*)).
Because of the 1-year incubation period of
Dracunculus medinensis, however, the overall impact of the case-containment strategy cannot be assessed until the 1991 transmission season.
