Talk:Dracunculiasis/Archive 1

Archive 1

Plagiarism

It seems that several paragraphs of this entry were originally copied from here, starting with "People, in remote, rural communities..." This seems to have come in with the first version. I'll leave a comment on Vogon77's talk page to see if he can clear this up. --Scott.wheeler 08:11, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Responding to myself here -- on second inspection it seems that both were copied from the CDC site. Since this page seems to have been essentially copied verbatim from that sounce, I'm placing it on votes for deletion. --Scott.wheeler 08:41, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Actually, I don't believe that articles published by the CDC (being a part of the US Federal Government) can be copyrighted. So, while the information on this page isn't properly attributed, and is therefore plagiarized, I don't think it qualifies as a copyright violation. Would a message attributing this to the CDC fix this? --66.222.36.122 04:30, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

The CDC link needs to be footnoted/referenced to the copied section, not just an "External link", a non editor wiki user just questioned me on this.--J Clear 18:39, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Death from Failed Removal?

It seems to be a common belief that failure to properly remove a Guinea worm from a person's body (particularly tearing the worm in half by pulling at it too hard) results in the death of the infected individual. Neither of the sites linked from this article mention this. If it is true, it should be confirmed and mentioned. If it's false, it's a common enough misconception that it bears explicitly debunking somewhere in the article. --Clay Collier 12:01, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Not entirely. If the worm breaks, it causes the host great pain, anaphalaxis, and increases the likilihood of infection. -Defenestrate

Revision

I went through the article with my dad, who used to work for Carter Center and Global 2000. We made changes. I think that the article is now accurate, even if it needs a copyedit. I will try to add an illustration. -Defenestrate

Spelling

I think that the spelling is wrong - I have "Dracunciliasis". -User:PeteStils

While not definitive, GoogleFight gives 29,000 more hits for the present spelling. Eldereft 22:49, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Merge

Should this page be merged with Dracunculus. Dracunculiasis has most of the same information as Dracunculus. Sodaplayer ^{talk contrib ^_^} 04:11, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose. Dracunculus is about a genus while this article is about a disease. Dracunculus includes information about other species besides those which infect humans and also includes taxonomic and other information. Some overlap is appropriate but they really do focus on different subjects.

I see, should I remove the merge tag or do we want to wait for more responses. Sodaplayer ^{talk contrib ^_^} 20:27, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there are going to be any more responses, as this is not a widely watched article. I will remove the tag. --Ginkgo100^talk 02:05, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

History

I saw a documentary on this subject and the historic treatment for having this worm is to cut into the leg where the female worm is and then wrap a piece of the worm around a stick, wand or staff and then spin it. The purpose will drag the worm out of the body and is supposedly the origin of the symbol of Hermes staff -the symbol of medicine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 162.135.0.6 (talk • contribs) 22:03, 13 July 2007 (UTC).

This hypothesis is mentioned at Rod of Asclepius although it is uncited there. I would rather not see it spread around to other articles such as this one without a citation from a reliable source. My mistake, it certainly is cited! --Ginkgo100^talk 22:27, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

The disease is referred to as Richta or Filaria medinensis or bochariensis (after Bukhara) in a book from 1892 that details the travels in Central Asia of the Swede Sven Hedin (Genom Khorasan och Turkestan, minnen från en resa i centralasien 1890 och 1891, published by Samson & Wallin, Stockholm 1892), p. 275-76. Hedin describes that up to 40-50% of the population of Bukhara are afflicted by worms and that in severe cases one person may host between ten and twenty worms. Facial scarring post-extraction of the worm was common according to Hedin. Hedin further notice that the disease is very common in Bukhara, common in Samarkand, Kermineh and Karschi. Tashkent had a few cases and Dschiak was noted as being almost ridden of the disease following the Russian annexation. 130.232.214.10 (talk) 16:33, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

New article

I created a new article, Eradication of infectious diseases, which could use a lot of work, if anyone is interested. There is a section on dracunculiasis. --Ginkgo100^talk 17:58, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Pictures?

What happened to the image of a Dracunculus being removed from someone's leg using a stick? It was quite repulsive, but I feel that it added to the article. Fuzzform (talk) 03:38, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Strange sentence

from the article: Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease in humans, results from infection by the nematode Dracunculus medinensis. The mammogram shows a coiled, whorled-type calcification in the subcutaneous tissues; this finding is characteristic of a dead Guinea worm. Mammogram? Text seems to have been taken from some book or article which possibly had an x-ray image? If the image could be found then this could be great-- otherwise it needs to be deleted. It only sounds right when listening to JAWS screen reader-- seems like "alt text" of an image : ) 217.166.94.1 (talk) 09:03, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

A massive chunk of information was added at the same time [1] that looks like it may have been copy-pasted from somewhere... I'm going to remove that whole bit. It makes the lead ridiculously long, duplicates information elsewhere in the article, and may be a copyvio. ~ mazca ^t|c 14:18, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Article Contradicts Itself

In the opening section it states: "Guinea worm disease is only contracted when a person drinks stagnant water contaminated with the larvae of the Guinea worm, or walks un-protected in infected waterways.", whereas later it states that it can only be contracted by drinking contaminated water. It does not seem that both can be true. Jimaginator (talk) 03:59, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Dracunculiasis/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Comments

• The first subsection should be broken into two IMO.
• The see also section should be deleted with its content combined into the text of the article.
• There are a lot of capitals in the first sentence. Should Medina Worm be capitalized?
• "best documented" should be clarified to "most historically documented" as that seems to be what the ref is referring too
• The lead needs to be expanded. It currently does not speak about treatment options
• The "method" being used in the lead image should be described. And is it effective? Do we have a ref for this?

Reviewer: Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:43, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

As I have become involved in editing the content of this article and the original nominated has moved on I will fail it, work further and renominate it in a bit.Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:57, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Are humans the only "host", or are water fleas also a host? Perhaps we are using the term "host" in a technical way that non-experts like me, who are merely college educated and have large general vocabularies, wouldn't understand. If so, let's avoid WP:Jargon and explain it in terms most readers can understand.

(Unless there's a policy that says we should use obscure "expert-only" terms whenever possible, because "serving the reader" is not one of our project's values.) --Uncle Ed (talk) 14:00, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

External Review

The following comments are provided as part of the new joint Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine/Google Project. I want to say that I think the article is well written and fairly complete. I will attempt to add the most recent facts. I learned a lot from this article. BSWSJR (talk) 03:48, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Introduction

I think the sentence containing "due to the common name "Guinea worm" should be changed to while the common name "Guinea worm". BSWSJR (talk) 04:47, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Signs and Symptoms

I suggest we add the following to the symptoms. A year after infection of the parasite symptoms may occur, but rarely, and may include an urticarial rash, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Recovery from ulcerative eruption of the parasite can be complicated by secondary bacterial infection, abscess formation, septic arthritis,sepsis, or tetanus. The reference for this information is http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/AAP-dracunculiasis.pdf and http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/dracunculiasis/factsht_dracunculiasis.pdf BSWSJR (talk) 02:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Life Cycle

I thought this section was well written. I thought the figure included for the life cycle was essential. BSWSJR (talk) 04:43, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Treatment

I think this section is well written. BSWSJR (talk) 05:14, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Epidemiology

I would change the second sentence of the first paragraph to read "less than 3200 cases" BSWSJR (talk) 03:45, 21 May 2010 (UTC) Under Certified Free, I would add this more recent information: At the end of 2009, WHO had certified a total of 187 countries and territories as free of dracunculiasis. Not yet certified by WHO are the four still-endemic countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Sudan), seven recently-endemic countries that have interrupted transmission (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Togo), and six never– or not-recently-endemic countries (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, South Africa) or territories (Greenland) with this reference http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/wrap-up/196.pdf. BSWSJR (talk) 04:03, 21 May 2010 (UTC) Under Attempting Eradication, the last paragraph should also say The Carter Center has since received major grants from the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Government of Oman, Vestergaard Frandsen, the John P. Hussman Foundation and the OPEC Fund for International Development as well as funding from other donors that will help match the funds from the Gates Foundation grant. Use this as a reference-http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/wrap-up/196.pdf. BSWSJR (talk) 03:58, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Given the emergence of South Sudan as a new nation the epidemiology section will need some work including a new map. Figures will not be available for a while but they should be out later this year. Does anyone have an figure for the new North and Sounth Sudan?DrMicro (talk) 13:20, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

North Sudan has reported no cases of endemic guinea worm since 2001; current transmission in Sudan seems to be all within the probable borders of South Sudan.Procrastinator supreme (talk) 14:13, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

History

This section is interesting and informative. I think the reference for Hristo Stambolski which is in a foreign language may be difficult to verify. BSWSJR (talk) 05:19, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Disease?

Why is this parasitic infection classified as a disease? We don't call pinworms "pinworm disease". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.145.251.34 (talk) 19:18, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

History I assume. It is pinworm infection and guinea worm disease as that is they way it has always been :-) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 10:30, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

This is pure speculation, but it could be because an asymptomatic course of infection with guinea worm is unknown, unlike most other worms (causing disease being an essential compononent of its life cycle). Procrastinator supreme (talk) 10:42, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 00:23, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

---

Guinea Worm Disease → Guinea worm disease — Should not have caps. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 10:28, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

• Support. See WP:CAPS for the rule, and Lassa fever for one of many examples of its application to similar article titles. Andrewa (talk) 16:40, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Okay this page has now been moved 4 times. In a couple of circles. I support either Guinea worm disease or Dracunculiasis.Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 00:47, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

This page

Uptodate only has one sentence on this disease. It looks like we have beaten them too it :-) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:11, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Longest nematode?

I modified the sentence thats states that D.m. is the longest nematode infecting humans as the same claim has been made for Dioctophyme renale; both claims are referenced.Ekem (talk) 23:55, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

"little dragons"

While perhaps literally true, saying that dracunculiasis is Latin for "affliction with little dragons" is misleading, because Latin draco doesn't imply the legged, winged, fire-breathing, rather dinosaur-like creature brought to mind by 'dragon' in modern English; 'draco' is simply a (usually large) snake or serpent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.91.166.236 (talk) 19:38, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Rod of Aesclepius?

I do not think the rod of asclepius has anything to do with this worm.70.138.103.82 (talk) 05:13, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

hosts

The article contradicts itself slightly on the issue of possible hosts of Dracunculus medinensis. The introduction states that it "has been reported in humans, dogs, cats, horses, cattle, and other animals in Africa and Asia." Then under 'History of the eradication programme' it is stated that "humans are the only host for Guinea worm". Presley.Perswain (talk) 06:03, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I added some additional verbiage and a ref to clarify. The second one now reads: "Since humans are the principle host for Guinea worm, and there is no evidence that D. medinensis has ever been reintroduced to humans in any formerly endemic country as the result of non-human infections, the disease can be controlled by identifying all cases and modifying human behavior to prevent it from recurring." Mojoworker (talk) 18:14, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

The sentence "Humans are the only known animal that guinea worms infect" is wrong. At least pigs and dogs also get guinea worm infections. The article at reference #2 doesn't support the sentence either. pdrap (talk) 05:07, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Conflicting statistic and source?

A section of the text states "...the disease remains endemic among humans in only four countries in Africa". However, the source provided for this statistic states that "Today, only 3 countries remain: South Sudan, Mali and Ethiopia". This also conflicts with a section of the article further down which states that, as of 2011, there are 10 cases in Chad. The source given, which can be seen here, was written in 2011, so is not out of date. (94.173.129.198 (talk) 17:36, 10 March 2012 (UTC))

Both sources are out of date. There are cases in Chad, the last case in South Sudan was in 2016, and the last case in Mali even earlier. Chad and Ethiopia are the countries that currently have cases.47.139.45.65 (talk) 18:08, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

Update on history

"There are now only 542 known cases of Guinea worm left worldwide, as of 2012" http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/18/health/guinea-worm-eradication/index.html?eref=igoogledmn_topstories — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kreutznaer (talk • contribs) 08:31, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Virus in Links

The series of monthly reports from the cartercenter - such as http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/wrap-up/216.pdf seem to contain a virus. When I try to read them my browser gives an error message. I have emailed this info to the cartercenter, but left the links here. Holland jon (talk) 08:36, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

No longer getting any warning messages from my browser. Haven't been getting any warning messages for a few months now but I was for some months. Holland jon (talk) 11:00, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Has these species had its DNA mapped?

Anyone know if this is being worked on? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) when u sign ur reply, thx 14:20, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Confined and contained cases

Quote from the article: "Sixty five of these cases were confined. Chad failed to contain 1 case; both Ethiopia and Mali failed to contain 3; the other uncontained cases were in South Sudan." Can anyone explain what does "confined case" and "contained case" (or "uncontained") mean?..

Yes - if the patient is identified before the worm starts to emerge, and medical staff can remove the worm without risk of water sources being contaminated by the worm then the case is contained. Otherwise the case is uncontained. The confined reference looks like a typo, should say contained. Holland jon (talk) 12:46, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

Canine vectors

Needs update regarding transmission in dogs in Chad. 75.41.109.190 (talk) 17:10, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

What exactly do you want to change? Ruslik_Zero 19:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Text-merging

• I have text-merged Dracunculiasis to Dracunculus medinensis, as there was much content forking between these two pages. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 10:38, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Not water fleas as vector but copepods!

In first line of the article water fleas are referred as spreading organisms (vectors) whereas copepods are correctly named and used as a term in the rest of the article and the figures. OKBerg, Dept Biology, NTNU Norway. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.241.81.134 (talk) 14:29, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

2011, 2012 and 2013 sections in Epidemiology

I would like to remove these 3 sub-sections. The information in them is already very well summerised in the table above, and I do not think the extra details - mainly of monthly updates of cases reported - is needed anymore.

I think the 2014 and 2015 sub-sections are still very relevant - in particular as they give more specific details of how the progress was made that year, as well as some updates on case counts.

Never removed a section before - so not sure if there is a procedure to follow! Holland jon (talk) 12:36, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

Done. (Actually done on 2 Sept) Holland jon (talk) 20:33, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Suggest to update the info

Just read the WHO2016. There are only 3 countries are reported infection now, not the 4 countries in the link. --Liang (WMTW) (talk) 09:18, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks User:Shangkuanlc updated as you suggested. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:40, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Actually, it's two now. The last South Sudan case was in 2016. Only Chad and Ethiopia remain.47.139.45.65 (talk) 18:06, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

Why is the number of cases increasing?

22 in 2015

22 in 2016

30 in 2017

Why the increase in recent years?

47.139.45.65 (talk) 18:10, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

The change is not statistically significant and may be entirely due to better surveillance. Ruslik_Zero 20:54, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

Vomiting

Not seeing it mentioned here[2] Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:17, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Sorry just noticed this, I added the ref (it was the next ref along). You removed the mention of the stick, but "The worm then emerges from the skin over the course of a few weeks." - if it is not removed with a stick, what happens "over the course of a few weeks"? I mean, the worm has already emerged when the blister ruptures. What happens next, if it is not removed with a stick, the refs don't say. But regardless, it is incorrect to say it emerges over a few weeks. Am I missing something? zzz (talk) 05:44, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

We discuss treatment in paragraph 3 and already say "The worm may be slowly removed over a few weeks by rolling it over a stick."

Ref above says "Full emergence takes several weeks." so will it emerge without being rolled over a stick? Not sure.

CMAJ says "usually is manually extruded by winding it onto a stick over several weeks" meaning it is not always done. I think it is fine to leave the treatment in the usual treatment paragraph. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 07:00, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Water fleas

Is the common name for copepods. We generally use easier to understand language in medical articles per WP:MEDMOS. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:51, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Text

"The "plague of the fiery serpents" which decimated the Hebrews during the Exodus from Egypt, as described in the Book of Numbers, is undoubtedly a reference to guinea worm infection."

http://www.isradiology.org/tropical_deseases/tmcr/chapter27/intro.htm

Not sure the issue? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:46, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Archive 1