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Guinea Worm (Dracunculus)
Guinea Worm is a tropical and sub-tropical parasitic worm with a larval stage that has another host, a small crustacean, water flea. When unfiltered stagnant water is drunk, the larvae gain entry and migrate in the (human) host. Having grown to adulthood, the female can be as long as 3 feet and migrates to the skin to produce initially a vesicle and an ulcerated opening that allows the female to release the larval forms into water. The traditional method of worm removal is to slowly wind it around a stick. If the worm dies in the tissue it can become calcified and visible on the radiograph.

Small calcified worms are often blamed on Guinea worm, but the absence of a complete history in these symptomless calcifications does not exclude the possibility of other worms, such as Loa loa, which is acquired from the bite of a fly that lives in the equatorial rain-forest.

Various anatomic expressions of pathology.

[View large image] Over the right lung apex (case report)
[View large image] in a finger (case report)
[View large image] [View large image]
Guinea worm (case report)
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[London South Bank U.]

IDM July 2007