Often, the worm needs to be pulled out by slowly winding it around a thin stick a few centimeters (inches) at a time. The whole process takes between 10 and 14 months.Īfter releasing her eggs, the female worm remains dangling out of the person’s foot. Water fleas swallow those eggs, and the cycle begins again. When the worm senses water, she releases her eggs. This hurts so much that the infected person often sticks their foot in water to relieve the pain. Long worml new guinea skin#Then, she pokes through the skin of the foot. Usually, the female heads toward the person’s foot. The male dies, but the female, loaded with eggs, begins moving through the person’s muscles. Then the males and females find each other and mate. Over the next 100 days, those larvae grow into long, thin, white worms. They take up residence inside the unfortunate person’s body. When a person drinks water and swallows the water fleas, the fleas get digested in the person’s stomach. Guinea worms begin their lives as larvae in the bellies of tiny water fleas. In fact, Dracunculiasis means “infection with little dragons” in Latin, a sign of just how much it can hurt. If this worm gets inside a person’s body, it causes a painful infection called Guinea worm disease, or Dracunculiasis (drah-CUN-due-LIE-ah-sis). The Guinea worm ( Dracunculus medinensis - “drah-CUN-cue-lus MED-in-EN- is) is a parasite - an animal that lives off a host, without giving anything in return.
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