It is the only nematode to be transmitted through drinking water, and in 1986 it could infect 3.3 million people a year. It has invaded human life from an early age, and in the 1980s, more than 20 countries around the world suffered from it. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of the international community over the years, there have been fewer and fewer cases of this parasite, and it is currently occurring largely only in Africa. The most intractable problem with this disease is that once infected, there is no medicine that can be treated, and it can only be prevented through the early stages.
What exactly is this parasite that spreads through drinking water? What happens once I get infected? Is life threatened? How do humans control their spread? Once under control, will these parasites make a comeback?
<h1>Guinea worms</h1>
Nematodes are one of the largest phylums in the animal kingdom, with more than 28,000 species recorded, and populations so large that they can be found everywhere on Earth, even in the most extreme areas of the environment. More than half of the nematodes are parasitic, and a large part of them are pathogens that parasitize plants and animals.
Guinea worms belong to this family and survive through parasitism. Adults look like a thick white line, the surface is very smooth, adult females are about 60-120 cm long, they have two uterus in their body cavity, and the uterus generally contains a large number of larvae. Surprisingly, the length of the male is very short, the longest can only grow to 4 cm, and the width is less than half that of the female. Parasites in humans are generally females.
There is only one way to be parasitized by guinea worms, which is to accidentally drink contaminated water. There are a lot of small water fleas in the water body that can carry the larvae of guinea worms, and when people accidentally drink these non-flowing waters, the larvae are inhaled into the body and will begin to grow in the body. This larvae do not affect animals, and humans are the only known reservoirs for this disease.
For parasitic creatures, only parasitism is likely to prolong their own lives. For the eggs of guinea worms, if they cannot successfully enter the host's body, then they can only survive for 3 weeks at most, and once they enter the host's body, their lifespan is greatly extended, and they can survive for about 4 months.
<h1>How do they get to the host early? </h1>
Many people may not know that water poverty once plagued a large number of developing countries, and many people lacked clean water sources and could only obtain domestic water through naturally occurring ponds and rivers. You know, the water we drink and the water we use now are filtered and purified layer by layer, so in the early days, people living in poor and water-scarce areas were likely to drink contaminated water.
Once these larvae enter the human body, they will pass through the stomach and intestinal wall of the human body and eventually enter the tissues of the human body. When the larvae develop into adults, the males are unable to survive, and the mating females begin to multiply in the subcutaneous tissue of humans.
The terrible thing is that this nematode will squirm in the subcutaneous tissue of the human body, that is to say, the infected person can see the nematodes swimming on their skin, this feeling is very painful, they will find the right time to escape from the human body. The escaped position has a very hot feeling, but the wound must not be allowed to touch the water, if the female accidentally touches the water when discharging, then a large number of larvae will be discharged, starting a new round of growth.
<h1>How to treat the infection? </h1>
Once infected with guinea worms, it will be a very painful thing, and at present, it seems that there is still no medicine that can treat this disease. The only way to do this is to take out the nematodes from the body, knowing that they are under the skin of humans, and it is very painful to take them out. But if left untreated, successive infections can lead to more serious threats to life.
Moreover, it still takes a very slow process for the body to return to normal after the nematodes are removed, and if you accidentally drink infected water, it is very likely that you will be infected again.
Fortunately, even in backward areas today, the chances of humans being infected with guinea worms are very low, mainly in the prevention and control work is very good. With the continuous development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of people's awareness, guinea worm is likely to become the first parasitic disease eradicated by mankind, which is really gratifying.
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