Nearing Eradication, Parasitic Guinea Worm Jumps Species to Dogs
Former President Jimmy Carter has vowed to see the last Guinea Worm die before he does -- and with the parasite eradicated from all but four countries, he's close. But now the enemy has found a new place to hide. The Guinea Worm Dracunculus medinensis is a horrific human parasite. Its larvae infect tiny fresh-water copepods which then enter the human digestive system through unfiltered drinking water.
The larvae then tunnel their way through the host's stomach and intestinal walls, where they mature and turn the human abdominal cavity into their own kinky sex cave. The males die in there, but each two-foot-long, fertilized female migrates to the host's skin -- generally somewhere on the lower body -- and causes an excruciating blister to form. When the host attempts to relieve the blister with immersion in water, the female seems to sense the temperature change, bursts out of the blister and excretes her foul larvae to begin the cycle anew. The entire human portion of the cycle takes about a year, and that's when a plague of other symptoms pop up in the human host: fever, itching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Secondary bacterial infections commonly result in painful disability that can disrupt the individual's ability to work, attend school or care for family members. This disability period typically lasts 8.5 weeks, according to the CDC, but it can sometimes prove permanent. That's why the Carter Foundation has waged a war of extermination on the Guinea worm, cutting known infections down by 99.99 percent, from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to just seven cases so far in 2016. But with victory so close at hand, this inhuman adversary has found a new place to hide.
Just as the alien in John Carpenter's The Thing took the form of a dog to outwit its human hunters, so too has the Guinea Worm jumped to man's best friend. As reported on NPR, dogs in Chad began experiencing Guinea Worm infections three years ago -- sometimes harboring as many 62 worms-per-host. Researchers aren't sure exactly how the jump occurred, or how the cornered parasites are reaching their new host species, but 600 dog infections popped up in Chad this year alone. Part of the problem is that dog ownership in Chad, as with much of the world, isn't quite like it is in the United States. The animals generally enjoy semi-feral free reign, but they need to be tied up for a solid two-week block if the worms are to safely leave their body and die on dry land. So the Carter Center is currently providing collars and chains, and they're paying individuals to tie up their dogs in an attempt to corner the guinea worm and push the organism ever closer to the tipping point of total eradication.
The larvae then tunnel their way through the host's stomach and intestinal walls, where they mature and turn the human abdominal cavity into their own kinky sex cave. The males die in there, but each two-foot-long, fertilized female migrates to the host's skin -- generally somewhere on the lower body -- and causes an excruciating blister to form. When the host attempts to relieve the blister with immersion in water, the female seems to sense the temperature change, bursts out of the blister and excretes her foul larvae to begin the cycle anew. The entire human portion of the cycle takes about a year, and that's when a plague of other symptoms pop up in the human host: fever, itching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Secondary bacterial infections commonly result in painful disability that can disrupt the individual's ability to work, attend school or care for family members. This disability period typically lasts 8.5 weeks, according to the CDC, but it can sometimes prove permanent. That's why the Carter Foundation has waged a war of extermination on the Guinea worm, cutting known infections down by 99.99 percent, from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to just seven cases so far in 2016. But with victory so close at hand, this inhuman adversary has found a new place to hide.
Just as the alien in John Carpenter's The Thing took the form of a dog to outwit its human hunters, so too has the Guinea Worm jumped to man's best friend. As reported on NPR, dogs in Chad began experiencing Guinea Worm infections three years ago -- sometimes harboring as many 62 worms-per-host. Researchers aren't sure exactly how the jump occurred, or how the cornered parasites are reaching their new host species, but 600 dog infections popped up in Chad this year alone. Part of the problem is that dog ownership in Chad, as with much of the world, isn't quite like it is in the United States. The animals generally enjoy semi-feral free reign, but they need to be tied up for a solid two-week block if the worms are to safely leave their body and die on dry land. So the Carter Center is currently providing collars and chains, and they're paying individuals to tie up their dogs in an attempt to corner the guinea worm and push the organism ever closer to the tipping point of total eradication.
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