( Guinea worm an ancient parasitic disea...)Ancient Worm Disease Could Be Eradicated Within Two Years, UN Agency Reports,Health

Guinea worm, an ancient parasitic disease causing tennis-ball-size ulcers so painful that victims feel as if they are on fire, could in less than two years// become the second illness after smallpox to be pushed into oblivion, thanks to water treatment and other preventive methods, the United Nations health agency reported today.

“This is the culmination of years of effort by local and international groups to see this disease eradicated,” UN World Health Organization (WHO) Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases Lorenzo Savioli said, noting that 12 more countries were declared ‘Guinea Worm Free’ by the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication earlier this month.

Since its creation in 1995, the Commission has certified 180 countries free of Dracunculiasis, the scientific name for the disease caused by a parasite found in Egyptian mummies and thought to be the “fiery serpent” often referred to in texts from pharaonic Egypt and Assyrian Mesopotamia.

In the early 1980s, an estimated 3 million people in more than 20 countries were infected. Today, this has dropped to about 25,000 in nine countries, and at this rate the Commission is on track to meeting its 2009 deadline for eradication worldwide, Dr. Savioli said.

Guinea worm is endemic in some villages of sub-Saharan Africa, spread through contaminated water. Its effects are crippling, with victims developing large ulcers, usually in the lower leg. The ulcers swell, at times to the size of a tennis ball, and burst, releasing a spaghetti-like worm ranging up to 0.8 metres long.

The searing pain forces people to jump into water, often the community’s only source of drinking water, where the worm releases thousands of larvae. The larvae are ingested by water fleas and the cycle begins again when a person drinks the water.

The disability is seasonal, usually re-emerging during harvest time, which is why it is often called “t
'"/>




Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. Respecting Dwarfs- A Lesson To Be Learnt From Ancient Egyptians
2. A Plant Used By Ancient Britons Found To Have Properties To Fight Cancer
3. Mining of Ancient Herbal Text Leads to Potential New Anti-Bacterial Drug
4. Ancient Herbal Text Paves the Way to Novel Anti-bacterial Drug
5. Mining of Ancient Herbal Text Leads to Potential New Anti-Bacterial Drug
6. Ancient Genes Used to Produce Salt-Tolerant Wheat
7. Ancient Indian Herb May Prove Cure For Recurrent UTI
8. Transdermal HRT not cardioprotective in postmenopausal women with Coronary Artery Disease
9. Vitamins-The answer to Heart Disease?
10. Link between Constipation and Parkinsons Disease
11. Levels Of Blood Proteins May Help Heart Disease Care