Drancunculoza

The female guinea worm induces a painful blister (A); after rupture of the blister, the worm emerges as a whitish filament (B) in the center of a painful ulcer which is often secondarily infected. 

The male worm is small and probably dies after copulation The male worm is small and probably dies after copulation. The female worm, which averages I m in length, wanders out to the subcutaneous tissue, specially that of the feet and legs.

Painful ulcerating skin lesion on the leg with a slowly appearing long nematode, seen in a Nigerian adult. Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm) is transmitted by drinking water containing infected Cyclops. One year later, a mature female worm, up to 1 m in size, gradually appear out of the ulcerated leg skin at a speed of 2-3 cm/day to cause severe pain.

Dracunculosis in Niger Dracunculosis in Niger. Gross findings of a coiled subcutaneous worm in the leg of a 18 y-o female. Severe pain restricts the labor and results in a big ecomonic damage to the society. Patients enter the water to relieve the pain, when the Guinea worm releases microfilariae into the water.

Dracunculiasis. A migrating adult female nematode, Dracunculus medinensis, is present in the subcutaneous tissues inferior to the breast of this African patient.

Dracunculiasis. A. A migrating adult female nematode, D Dracunculiasis. A. A migrating adult female nematode, D. medinensis, is present in the scrotum. B. The classical matchstick recovery technique used in extracting the adult female worm is demonstrated.

Cutaneous ulcer dracunculiasis The adult female worms often induce cutaneous ulcer formation. When the ulcerated area is immersed in water, the female deposits many larvae into the water that eventually develop in microscopic copepods. When these are subsequently ingested by people drinking the contaminated water, the parasites are digested free of the copepods and migrate throughout the body, over a long period of time (months to years). The female worm can achieve lengths approximating 1 m. Note the atrophic circular scars present as the result of previous infection.