Guinea Worm Disease
Symptoms
Usually it is difficult to suspect Guinea worm disease in the initial months, thus the symptoms will also appear about one year after a person become infected. Just after a few hours or day before the worm comes out, the infected person might suffer from fever, swelling, and pain in the area. While in maximum cases, 90% of the worms come out of the legs and feet, hence pain is common in these body parts. Other symptoms can include:
- Itchy rash
- Nausea
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Vomiting
Blisters can also occur anywhere on the skin and it gets bigger over several days, resulting into a burning pain. In addition, removing the worm is a daunting task. Besides being painful, it can also cause greater infection without proper care. Wound infections can be followed by some complications like:
- Generalized infection (sepsis)
- Joint infections (septic arthritis)
- Redness and swelling of the skin (cellulitis)
- Boils (abscesses)
- Lock jaw (tetanus)
Natural Treatments
So far, there is no drug treatment for the Guinea worm disease. Also, there is no vaccine to prevent the infection. Hence, once part of the worm starts emerging out of the wound, the solution is to pull out the rest of the worm each day, fetching a few centimeters winding it around a piece of gauze or you can use a clean stick. In several cases, the whole worm can be pulled out just in few days, but usually it could take up to weeks.
The only reason you can use medicines is for reducing the pain and swelling. You can go for any, aspirin or ibuprofen. Also, antibiotic ointment can help prevent secondary bacterial infections.
- See more at: http://www.drscabies.com/guinea-worm-disease-all-you-need-to-know-about#sthash.rmDl40A1.dpuf
