Medical assault on the three-foot Guinea worm of Sudan

Telegraph ^ | February 17, 2010 | Peter Martell

[C19fan]

It was an agonising process that lasted days as the worms, measuring around one metre (three feet) in length, fought their way out of her body.

"They were very painful, you cannot rest or sleep," the young mother said, her baby resting on her back in a goatskin carrying pouch. ......................................................... The Carter Centre - the not-for-profit organisation founded by former US president Jimmy Carter - has been working in Sudan since 1989 to exterminate the worm once and for all.

He said that when they started their project in southern Sudan they found more than 100,000 cases of infection.

"Last year we had about 2,500 cases, and we believe that in the next two or three years we will have zero cases of Guinea worm in Sudan," he said during a mid-February visit to Lojura where he met worm-infected villagers.

[Joe 6-pack]

IIRC, doctors would prescribe a medicine to kill them off when you got where you wanted to be. I think it was arsenic based!

[C19fan]

I am sure the “medicine” had something bad in it like arsenic or mercury. You need something potent enough to kill the critters in your tummy.

[Daffynition]

If these worms are not controlled, envision the calamity!

[a fool in paradise]

That’s quite a can of worms...

[a fool in paradise]

I’ve heard tales of using a plate of warm milk near your mouth to lure out the worms...

[a fool in paradise]

Puts you off of dental floss for awhile too!

[Joe 6-pack]

If you google “tapeworm removal” there are, um....videos (gag, choke, sputter, cough, wheeze)

[C19fan]

I am probably going to check it out. Thanks.

[C19fan]

Animal Planet had a show about a dude who had fly maggots in his back and showed an actual video of their removal. Unique combination of grossness and fascination.

[Cloverfarm]

Once upon a time, maggots were used to clean infected wounds.

My cousin, a nurse, was to treat one of her patients with prescription leaches to lessen facial swelling after — I forget, now — surgery after a car wreck or something.

I was so startled by the idea of leaches that I’m not sure I have all the details!

[aruanan]

IIRC, until the late thirties in the U.S., tapeworms were being sold as weight reduction ‘systems’.

The all-natural, organic weight loss system.

[MHGinTN]

I'm 64. When I was in grade school we had a skinny little classmate who had chronic sore throat. It was said that he ‘got well’ when the school nurse looked down his throat and saw the tapeworm poking its nasty head up into his larynx.

[SunkenCiv]

don't even get me started on bilharzia...

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