Dracunculiasis (Q38523)

A disease resulting from drinking water contaminated with water fleas infected with larvae of the nematode Dracunculus medinensis. It may take up to a year from ingestion of larvae for a mature gravid female worm to migrate to the skin and discharge immature larvae on contact with water. Dracunculiasis typically manifests as an intensely pruritic papule on a lower extremity from which part of the worm may emerge. Secondary pyogenic infection is common. This may be preceded by generalised symptoms such as fever, pruritus, urticaria and oedema.