infectious diseases
Dracunculiasis
Introduction
Dracunculiasis is infection withDracunculus medinensis. Symptoms are a painful, inflamed skin lesion, which contains an adult worm, and debilitating arthritis. Diagnosis is by inspection. Treatment is slow removal of the adult worm. Dracunculiasis is close to being eradicated. (See also Approach to Parasitic Infections .) In the mid-1980s, 3.5 million people had dracunculiasis, but by 2018, due to international efforts to interrupt transmission, only 28 cases were reported. In 2021, only 14 cases were reported in humans ( General references ). Transmission remains within a narrow belt of African countries—Chad, Mali, Ethiopia, and possibly Sudan and South Sudan. The guinea worm is likely to be the first human parasite to be eradicated ( General references ). 