How would you like to have a large worm come crawling through your skin as it seeks to escape your body?
That is what
happens with dracunculiasis (from the Latin, 'affliction with little dragons') ,or Guinea worm disease. In the gruesome film trailer below you will see this occur right before your eyes.
But don't worry - you'll be insulated from the excruciating pain.
Here is the blurb from the WWW site:
Foul Water, Fiery Serpent is a new documentary feature film that follows the stories of dedicated health workers engaged in a final battle to eradicate a horrific disease in Africa.
For thousands of years the Guinea worm parasite (Dracunculus medinensis) has caused disabling misery, infecting people who drink water contaminated with the worm’s larvae. After growing inside the victim for a year, the adult worm up to three feet long emerges from the body through an agonizing skin blister that can incapacitate and cripple.
For nearly three years, Foul Water, Fiery Serpent, tracks determined teams of men and women as they fight the closing skirmishes to wipe out the last Guinea worms in Ghana and Sudan. Following the victory against smallpox, Guinea worm is likely to be the next disease in the history of mankind to be eradicated from the Earth.
FOUL WATER, FIERY SERPENT - documentary trailer
The Carter Center has been the leader in the Guinea worm eradication program. Here are Q&A from the CDC. The eradication program is on the verge of achieving its goal of complete elimination of Guinea worm disease.
Here is a Time photo essay.
But there is at least one organization opposed to extermination of the Guinea worm itself: Save the Guinea Worm Foundation.
"All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life." - Thomas Mann
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