If this worm is new to you, you may start to wonder what does the worm look like?
The answer is: Guinea worm looks exactly like a spaghetti noodle at mature stage (sorry to spaghetti lovers ) It can grow up to more than 90cm in length.
How do people get infected?
Well, at places where clean water is not accessible, people can get infected while drinking stagnant water that hosts tiny water flea that carry the larvae of Guinea worm. Once inside the stomach, the larvae take 1 year to mature and pierce through the walls of intestines to mate. The males will die after mating where the female worms burrow into the deeper connective tissues and attempt to leave the human host (usually through the lower limbs).
At this stage, as the Guinea worms try to burrow their ways out of the human hosts, painful blisters are formed on the human skin. The pain is excruciating with a burning sensation, human hosts often soak their limbs in cold water to ease the pain.
Once the blister or open-sore submerge into water, the female Guinea worms will take their chance and release thousands of larvae. The water flea will consume the larvae, and another cycle will begin.
Currently, there is no cure for Guinea worm disease. To remove the Guinea worm from a human host, one must wrap the worm in a stick once the worm emerges from the skin. Then, slowly, bits by bits, wound the worm around the stick by pulling the worm out of the skin. The whole process is long and painful, sometimes it might take more than 1 month just to extract the worm out of the body. (the worm is very long and is buried deep in the connective tissue)
I dare you to read this post while eating spaghetti. *EviL grin*
Wow. This is quite simple to understand and very informative.
ReplyDeleteWorm Parasites are very interesting to me. Weather they be in the brain or intestines or muscle tissue, they are very, intriguing