{"title":"Dracunculiasis over the centuries: the history of a parasite unfamiliar to the West.","authors":"Omar Simonetti, Verena Zerbato, Stefano Di Bella, Roberto Luzzati, Fabio Cavalli","doi":"10.53854/liim-3102-15","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) is a terrible disease limited, even historically, to the arid and poor areas 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 contaminated with crustacean harboring larvae of <i>Dracunculus</i> <i>m</i><i>edinensis</i>, a nematode. The natural history of the disease is caused by adult worms invading connective tissues 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 physicians and surgeons could read on medical books, at the end, were attributed to veterinary parasitic disease. In Modern age only during the colonialist era dracunculiasis 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.</p>","PeriodicalId":52423,"journal":{"name":"Infezioni in Medicina","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10241402/pdf/1124-9390_31_1_2023_257-264.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Infezioni in Medicina","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.53854/liim-3102-15","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) is a terrible disease limited, even historically, to the arid and poor areas 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 contaminated with crustacean harboring larvae of Dracunculusmedinensis, a nematode. The natural history of the disease is caused by adult worms invading connective tissues 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 physicians and surgeons could read on medical books, at the end, were attributed to veterinary parasitic disease. In Modern age only during the colonialist era dracunculiasis 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.
期刊介绍:
The Journal publishes original papers, in Italian or in English, on topics concerning aetiopathogenesis, prevention, epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical features and therapy of infections, whose acceptance is subject to the referee’s assessment. The Journal is of interest not only to infectious disease specialists, microbiologists and pharmacologists, but also to internal medicine specialists, paediatricians, pneumologists, and to surgeons as well. The Editorial Board includes experts in each of the above mentioned fields.