Guinea worm disease

noun

variants or guinea worm disease

: dracunculiasis

Guinea worm disease is a parasitic infection known as dracunculiasis that can be prevented by boiling or filtering drinking water through a finely woven cloth.

—Lawrence K. Altman

Akoon, like other sufferers, contract guinea worm disease by drinking from stagnant water infested with a flea called cyclops, which swallows but cannot digest guinea worm larvae.

—Tom Maliti

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

Guinea worm disease

noun

variants or guinea worm disease

: dracunculiasis

… near eradication of Guinea worm disease, a parasitic affliction that once infected two million people every year in Pakistan, India and 16 countries in Africa.

—Jim Wooten, The New York Times Magazine