Dr. Donald Hopkins, the Guinea Worm Slayer
Posted on April 28, 2013
This fascinating video from The New York Times explains how people like Dr. Donald R. Hopkins and The Carter Center are helping to win the fight against the extremely painful Guinea worm disease (Dracunculiasis) in Africa. Dracunculiasis is a Latin name for Guinea worm disease and it means "affliction with little dragons."
A good explanation of how the worms use the human body and water in their life cycle can be found here. There is no treatment for the disease once the worms are inside the human body. Fortunately, keeping humans from getting the disease is not difficult. Filtering the water with a cloth filter helps keep the water fleas out that host the worm larvae so people never catch the disease.
The video also explains how Dr. Donald R. Hopkins used his experiences encountering prejudice to communicate with rural villages in Africa about how to battle the worms. He knew he could not just go into these villages acting like a know-it-all and expect them to instantly do what he said.
Thanks to people like Dr. Hopkins, the Guinea worm is expected to be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated. The case number has dwindled from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to just 542 cases last year. In a few years the number could be zero. Take a look: