What si Dracunculiasis ?

Dracunculiasis is an infection caused by Dracunculus medinensis roundworms. Which causes pain, inflamed skin sores and debilitating arthritis. The infection occurs mostly on narrow paths across several countries in the region of South Africa and in Yemen, and only during certain seasons.


CAUSE
People become infected by drinking water containing infected water animals like crustaceans are small, which then became the shelter for the worms. After absorption, and release dead crustacean larvae, which penetrate the intestinal wall. The larvae mature into adult worms approximately 1 year. As an adult, female worms move through the tissue under the skin, usually toward the feet. There, they made an opening in the skin so that when they release the larvae, the larvae may leave the body, into the water, and found shelter crustacean. If the larvae do not reach the skin, they die and disintegrate or harden (calcify) under the skin.


SYMPTOMS
The symptoms started when the worm penetrates the skin. A blister formed on the openings. The area around the blisters itching, burning, and inflamed, swollen, red, and painful. Material released the worm can cause allergic reactions, which can lead to difficulty breathing, vomiting, and an itchy rash. The symptoms subsided and the blisters are healed after adult worms leave the body. In about 50% of people, a bacterial infection occurring around the opening due to the worm. Sometimes the joints and tendons around the broken blisters.


Diagnosis
Diagnosis is obvious when looking at the blisters adult worms. X rays may be done to determine classification of worms.


TREATMENT
Typically, the adult worms slowly lifted more than a day to a week to play it on a rod. Worms can be removed surgically after a local anesthetic is used, but in many areas, this method is not available. People who also had bacterial infections metronidazole is sometimes given to reduce inflammation.


PREVENTION
Filtering drinking water through cheesecloth, boiling water, and only drank chlorinated water helps prevent dracunculiasis.