Dracunculiasis over the centuries: the history of a parasite unfamiliar to the West

Abstract

Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) is a terrible disease limited, even historically, to the arid and poor ar-eas of our planet and which in the West has always been seen as an exotic disease and therefore has never taken root in the collective imagination. This parasitosis is transmitted to humans by drinking water contami-nated with crustacean harboring larvae of Dracunculus medinensis, a nematode. The natural history of the disease is caused by adult worms invading connective tis-sues and causing blistering, ulceration and edema. Well known in Ancient Egypt where the disease was endemic in its southern area, was known in Europe mainly from the reports of medical writers starting from the Roman imperial period but without direct knowledge. In Middle age the descriptions of this disease that phy-sicians and surgeons could read on medical books, at the end, were attributed to veterinary parasitic disease. In Modern age only during the colonialist era dracun-culiasis was perceived as a problem, however sporadic. In 1986 Guinea Worm Eradication Program (GWEP) was launch without success. Thus, the disappearance of this parasitosis should still be postponed but not abandoned.