A CLASS PRESENTATION ON EPIDERMIOLOGY

WITH THE TOPIC

GUINEA WORM DISEASE

BY
 TABLE OF CONTENT

a. Dedication……………………………………………………………2

b. Acknowledgement…………………………………………………..3

c. Table of content………………………………………………………4

d. Introduction to guinea worm……………………………………..5

e. Causes………………………………………………………….6

f. Symptoms…………………………………………………….7

g. Diagnosis…………………………………………………………8

h. Treatment…………………………………………………………9

i. Prevention…………………………………………………………10

j. Conclusion…………………………………………………………11

k. References…………………………………………………………12
 INTODUCTION TO GUINEA WORM (DRACUNCULIASIS)

Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease, is a parasitic infection by

the Guinea worm,” Dracunculus medinensis”. A person becomes infected from

drinking water that contains water fleas infected with guinea worm larvae. After

ingestion, the worms penetrate the digestive tract and escape into the body, where

they develop over the course of a year. Eventually, the adult worm migrates to an exit

site – usually a lower limb – and induces an intensely painful blister on the skin.

When an infected person submerges the wound in water to ease the pain, the blister

bursts open and the worm spews her larvae into the water, then slowly crawls out of

the wound over the course of a few weeks. The wound remains painful over the

course of the worm's emergence, disabling the infected person for the three to ten

weeks it takes the worm to emerge. During this time, the open wound can become

infected with bacteria, leading to death in around 1% of case.

Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease, is an extremely rare neglected tropical

disease primarily affecting remote and impoverished communities in parts of Africa.

People become infected with the parasitic worm after drinking contaminated water or

eating undercooked fish or other aquatic animals. After about a year, the worm breaks

through the skin, causing itchy, burning blisters, often on the feet or legs.
CAUSES OF GUINEA WORM

Guinea worm disease is caused by the parasitic worm Dracunculus medinensis,

commonly called Guinea worm. The way the worm gets into the body and makes

people sick is fairly complex, and it all starts with water fleas.

These small crustaceans (known as copepods or water fleas) live in stagnant water

and eat the Guinea worm larvae. Inside, the larvae go through changes, and after two

weeks, they are ready to be infective.

When people drink water that has been contaminated with the copepods, the copepods

die and release the larvae into the human digestive tract. There, they make their way

through the infected person’s stomach and intestinal walls, eventually

reaching subcutaneous tissues (the space just beneath the skin).

The larvae stay in the body for about a year as they mature into adult worms. Female

adults can grow to be about 24–39 inches (60–100 centimeters) long. After mating, a

worm starts to make its way toward the skin, causing physical discomfort. The itching

and burning can become so intense that people rush to submerge the infected part in

water to get relief. Every time they do, the female adult worm breaks through the skin

to discharge her immature larvae back out into the freshwater, starting the whole cycle

again. After about two to three weeks, the female runs out of larvae, and eventually

dies and becomes calcified in the body if it's not removed.

SYMPTOMS OF GUINEA WORM

People infected with Guinea worm don’t typically have any symptoms until about a

year after they're first infected. It’s not until the worm is about to erupt from the skin

that people start to feel sick. What that happens, the symptoms of Guinea worm

disease can include:

 Fever

 Nausea and vomiting

 Diarrhea

 Shortness of breath

 Burning, itching, pain, and swelling where the worm is in your body (often the

legs and feet)

 Blister where the worm breaks through the skin

DIAGNOSIS

Guinea worm disease is diagnosed through a simple physical exam. Health care

providers look for the telltale white, stringy worm poking through the blister once the

affected area has been immersed in water.

There are currently no diagnostic tests available to identify those infected before

symptoms appear.

 Clinical presentation of guinea –worm disease is so typical and well known to

local people in endemic areas that it is sufficient to make diagnosis.

 Examination of the fluid discharged by the worm can show rhabditiform larvae.

 No serologic test is available.

TREATMENT

Like many neglected tropical diseases, there is no cure or specific medication to treat

Guinea worm disease. De-worming medications used for other parasitic infections

don't appear to work to treat Guinea worm infections or prevent symptoms from

occurring. Instead, treatment typically involves removing the worm through a long

and painstaking process.

 The infected body part is submerged in water to coax the worm into peeking

out of the wound even further.

 The wound and area around it are cleaned to prevent infection.

 Taking great care not to break it, a few centimeters of the worm is wrapped

around a stick or piece of gauze. This keeps the worm from going back inside

the body and encourages more of it to come out.

 This process is repeated every day for days or weeks until the worm is finally

extracted.

Medications like ibuprofen can be given to reduce swelling and relieve pain involved.

Antibiotic ointment can also be applied to the affected areas to prevent a bacterial

infection.
PREVENTION

No vaccine exists against Guinea worm, but the disease can be completely prevented

by ensuring safe drinking water and not allowing the adult worms to disperse their

larvae.

The best way to prevent infection is to drink water only from uncontaminated water

sources, like hand-dug wells and boreholes. Many communities affected by Guinea

worm disease, however, lack access to clean drinking water. In those instances, any

water used for drinking or cooking should be filtered.

The copepods that carry the Guinea worm larvae are too small to be seen without the

help of a magnifying glass, but they're big enough to be easily removed from the

water using a cloth or pipe filter. Water sources can also be treated using a larvicide

that kills the copepods and, as a result, the Guinea worm larvae. To protect drinking

water supplies, those with blisters or partially removed worms should steer clear of

fresh water drinking sources.

CONCLUSION

Guinea worm is a parasitic disease caused by “dracunculus medinensis”, so to avoid

such parasitic disease we must stay clear from unclean waters( contaminated water).

And also this disease affects the poors because they hardly find clean waters in their

rural areas.
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