It took several weeks to remove the parasite from the patient's body.

The species calendar I wrote before was about the Komodo dragon, and what I’m going to bring to you today is also a “dragon” that lives in the real world. But unlike the “giant dragon” like the Komodo dragon, the protagonist of today’s story is a “dragon” that has mastered “dark magic”. Its name is: Guinea worm.

Guinea worm | CDC / Wikimedia Commons

This creature is just as confusing as its name. What kind of creature is it? Is it a dragon or a worm? Its name also puzzled me for a long time. Is it Medina guinea worm or Medina dragon nematode? The Latin name Dracunculus medinensis reveals the answer: Medina guinea worm is the correct pronunciation.

The largest nematode

Dragons are very large, and the Medina worm, which inherits the name of dragon, is also one of the largest known nematodes, with a body length of more than one meter. Our ancestors have a wise saying: "Don't be afraid of thieves stealing, but be afraid of thieves thinking about it." Imagine that unknowingly, there is a "dragon" lurking in your body, which not only devours your flesh and blood mercilessly, but will also release strong "dark magic" to make you miserable one day in the future. Just thinking about it makes me shudder...

Doctors removing Guinea worm from a patient | Wikimedia Commons

The larvae of the Medina guinea nematode live in water. They parasitize on some tiny copepods (commonly known as sword water fleas, and large species are also used as live feed for ornamental fish and are also called green springs). When people drink water containing sword water fleas, they will be infected. After the sword water fleas are digested by gastric juice, the larvae of the guinea nematode will drill into the epidermis of the digestive tract, enter your body through the circulatory system, and absorb human tissues for growth and development. Of course, the "evil dragon" will secrete some substances to mix with the immune system and also offset the pain, so that even if the dragon's body length reaches 1 meter, we will not be aware of its existence...

Various Daphnia species | Andrei Savitsky / Wikimedia Commons

When the dragon matures, it will crawl near our skin and begin to release dark magic, and your nightmare will begin from then on...

When the egg sacs in the female insects mature, they need to lay eggs in the water to pass on their lineage. However, how can people obey the temptation of the dragon? They will cause severe itching and pain on our epidermis, and begin to produce blisters and ulcers. This severe burning pain will make people unable to help but soak in cool water to relieve the burning pain. At this time, the dragon has just achieved its goal and laid its eggs in the water.

Life cycle of Guinea worm | CDC / Wikimedia Commons

Guinea worms usually crawl to the lower limbs of the human body, such as ankles, thighs or scrotum, but occasionally some people with poor directions will get lost and crawl to any part of the body they can reach, such as joints, eyes, heart and lungs, and even the brain. People who encounter these situations may be disabled at best or even die...

Control of guinea worm

Although we have ways to defeat the dragon, we will also suffer terrible torture in the process: clean the wound with clean water to lure the nematode to stick its head out, then use a thin stick to wrap it to prevent it from retracting into the body. Then there is a long tug-of-war, slowly and gently pulling the nematode out of the body bit by bit. If too much force is used, the nematode's body may break, and the remaining part will cause wound infection and other trauma. This process may last as long as a week, and there are even extreme records of up to two months. Without exception, patients regard this process as the most intense pain they have ever experienced in their lives...

Removing guinea worms is painful | humanosphere.org

What is even more terrifying is that there may be more than one parasite in the human body, and there may be dozens of them at most. Their incubation period can be as long as several months or even years. In other words, if you are accidentally infected by drinking water, the guinea worm may appear in batches within a few years, causing you to suffer multiple times...

Our ancestors once experienced the pain of Guinea worm. Archaeologists found traces of infection with Guinea worm on Egyptian mummies from more than 3,000 years ago, and some scholars believe that the "fire snakes" that attack young children recorded in the Bible are also symptoms caused by infection with Guinea worm...

Although the dragon is terrible, it will eventually be defeated by the brave. Although the symptoms of Guinea worm are terrible, they can be well prevented as long as attention is paid to the hygiene of drinking water, such as filtering or boiling drinking water. The areas where the dragon is rampant are mostly those economically backward countries. Due to the lack of drinking water hygiene and backward basic health facilities, the infection rate is extremely high in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Through various efforts of people, the number of patients with Guinea worm is decreasing. In 1986, there were 3.5 million cases in 16 countries. By 2010, this number had dropped to more than 1,000 cases. The dragon seems to have been sealed.

Clean drinking water is an effective way to prevent guinea worm infection | www.dvidshub.net

The war against parasites

As a post-80s generation living in the city, our lives have almost nothing to do with parasites, and even many doctors have never seen parasites. I remember a news story: a young man in Fujian was infected with beef tapeworms. When the doctor prescribed medicine for him, he even hoped to take the parasites excreted from his body back to the hospital to be made into specimens for teaching purposes. In fact, decades ago, in the 1950s, the people in southern my country also suffered from parasites. "Thousands of villages are deserted, and thousands of houses are deserted with ghosts singing." is a true description of the situation at that time. However, under the leadership of our party and government, the Chinese people have worked hard for many years and finally eliminated schistosomiasis.

Patient after surgery | Mulugeta Ayene / Flickr

In my opinion, China is now the safest, most livable and happiest place in the world. You can walk on the streets without worrying about clean drinking water, and there will be no "evil dragon" to disturb your dreams. Only a prosperous and stable country can bring a happy and peaceful life to its people, and will not let you live in fear and worry.

I feel lucky to be born in China today and to be a Chinese.

Slogan against schistosomiasis | Vmenkov / Wikimedia Commons

I first learned about the parasite Guinea worm from the article "Leto-Vorbeck and the East African War" written by @沾盐老师. It, along with the tsetse flies that spread sleeping sickness, the chiggers that can eat all the toes, and the flat-headed ticks that burrow into the calves to suck blood, were all nightmares that I could not get rid of back then. I also admired Teacher Dipsan's profound knowledge and his humility and gentleness. Later, I was fortunate enough to meet Teacher Dipsan, and with his encouragement, I also started writing, although my level has not been very good so far. I hope to pay the highest respect and gratitude to Teacher Dipsan here. I will also share more interesting stories with you in the future.