Guinea worm disease, also known as dracunculiasis, is an infection caused by the parasitic worm Dracunculus medinensis or Guinea-worm. It is considered a neglected tropical disease (NTD) and affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink. The worm enters the human body through contaminated drinking water and grows for almost a year before emerging through a burning blister in the skin. Key facts about Guinea worm disease include:

• Life cycle: The adult female worm carries about 3 million larvae and emerges from the skin after about one year of infection, usually from the feet, releasing thousands of larvae and thus repeating the life cycle.

• Transmission: Guinea worm disease is spread by drinking water containing Guinea worm larvae. Larvae are immature forms of the worm. As a result of research into the cause of Guinea worm infections in animals, it is now believed that GWD might also be spread to both animals and humans by eating certain aquatic animals that might carry Guinea worm larvae, like fish or frogs, but do not themselves suffer the effects of transmission.

• Symptoms: Symptoms begin just before the worm emerges and include a blister, fever, swelling, and pain. When the adult female worm comes out of the skin, it can be very painful, take time to remove, and be disabling. The wound caused by the emerging worm may develop a secondary bacterial infection. This makes the pain worse and can increase the time an infected person is unable to function from weeks to months. Sometimes, permanent damage occurs if a joint is infected and becomes locked.

• Prevention and treatment: There is no vaccine to prevent the disease, nor is there any medication to treat patients. Prevention is possible, however, and successful implementation of preventive strategies have driven the disease to the verge of eradication. Prevention strategies include ensuring access to safe drinking water, filtering water from open water bodies before drinking, and heightening surveillance to detect every human case and infected animal within 24 hours of worm emergence).

Great progress has been made towards elimination of Guinea worm disease; the number of human cases annually has fallen from 3.5 million in the mid-1980s to 15 in 2021.