Published 22 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3892
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3892

News

Chasing the worm

Michelle Lodge

1 Juba

New cases of guinea worm disease in southern Sudan have recently fallen from 20 000 a year to an estimated 1500, and doctors are hoping that the disease will become the second in history to be eliminated

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Any observer of guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis, will tell you that this waterborne parasitic disease should be simple to eradicate. After all, no vaccinations or costly drugs are needed, the disease cannot be passed from one person to another, and the wounds that the worm itself causes on a patient’s body are handled effectively with what you would use for a scraped knee: clean water, antiseptic, gauze, and an antibacterial ointment.

But eradication of the nematode, Dracunculus medinensis, requires that most slippery of ingredients: a change in human behaviour. In fact it requires two changes, one of which is particularly difficult to effect because of the parasite’s wily ways.

The life cycle of the worm begins when a person drinks water infected with its larvae (see box). So the first change that health campaigners are pursuing is to persuade people to filter their water before drinking it.

Then . . . [Full text of this article]


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