Peter DiCampo

Stories: The Fiery Serpent

Guinea worm, scientifically called Dracunculiasis and nicknamed The Fiery Serpent based on presumed biblical references, is a water-born parasite that causes a painful blister from which a worm emerges. The disease can be so debilitating that a patient is unable to walk for several days or even weeks until the worm is completely removed.  

Closely tied to issues of water shortage, Guinea worm is spread when a patient with an emerged worm walks inside a source of drinking water and the worm lays its eggs. In Ghana's Northern Region, many communities have only one small, contaminated dam from which they fetch their drinking water, causing the area to be one of the few remaining places on earth that are highly endemic with Guinea worm disease. 

 

  • Children fetch drinking water from the dam in Wantugu, Ghana. Guinea worm is a common problem in communities that fetch their water from one small, contaminated water source. The dam dries up for several months during northern Ghana's dry season, and the people of Wantugu have to walk several miles to the next village to get water.
  • Women fetching water pass through a children's soccer game in Wantugu.
  • Child Guinea worm patients at a Guinea Worm Case Containment Center in Wantugu. The majority of Guinea worm patients are children, as they are less likely to check if their drinking water has been filtered.
  • A young girl with Guinea worm disease is bandaged in a Guinea Worm Case Containment Center in Wantugu. Guinea worm patients go through a daily bandaging routine that involves unwrapping the bandage from the day before, tugging the worm a few milimeters a day to remove it, and then applying a new bandage. The girl resisted the painful process so violently that it took three adults to hold her down.
  • Mariam Inusa, 15, cries out in pain as health workers pull on the Guinea worm in her leg at her home in Savelugu, Ghana. The worm in Mariam's leg was finally pulled out after several days of bandaging.
  • Health workers massage the area around a Guinea worm on four-year-old Samata Baba's ankle at her home in Savelugu.
  • Erahmah lies on a mat on the floor of a Guinea Worm Case Containment Center in Wantugu. She complained that the Guinea worm in her foot was so painful that she could not walk, even to get food for herself.
  • Abukari Memunatu, center, bandages a woman in her home in Kanfehyili, Ghana. Pain in the woman's leg caused by an emerged Guinea worm made it difficult for her to walk, so health workers visited her in her home each day.
  • Sualey, a Ghanaian volunteer, examines a cloth filter in a home in Wantugu during a routine house-to-house filter inspection. The simple filter is enough to keep Guinea worm out of drinking water, but household health education is necessary to make sure people are using the filters properly.
  • A young girl waits for water to flow from a tube out of Difibihini Dam in Savelugu. In addition to being contaminated with Guinea worm, dam water causes other water-born illnesses. The dam is shared with livestock, including cattle, which wade and defecate in the water.
  • Men and women load water into barrels on a tractor at Libga Dam in Savelugu. These people will keep some of the water for their own families, but most of it will be sold.
  • Women fetch water from a man-made well in Wantugu. During Ghana's rainy season, wells such as this one collect water that is accessible and free of Guinea worm.
  • Children wait to fetch water at a drilled borehole well in Wantugu. Several such wells have been installed as an attempt to solve the village's severe water shortage, but the water table in the ground is too low, and sometimes it can take up to forty-five minutes to fill a single head-pan of water.
  • Electricians install power lines in Wantugu. The lines are to be connected to a system that will pump water from a well to several fetching points in the village, alleviating both problems of water shortage and Guinea worm.
  • Women gather around a faucet at the recently completed Wantugu water system. The system pumps clean water that is free of Guinea worm to the midst of the village. Some health workers fear that, despite the health benefits, villagers will not use the system because they have to pay a small fee every time they fetch water.
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