There is no vaccine or medication to treat or prevent Guinea worm. A person infected with Guinea worm disease will not even realize it until a year after drinking contaminated water, he or she develops a painful blister and a threadlike worm emerges from it.
Once the worm begins to emerge, a local health worker will wrap the 2- to 3-foot-long worm around a small stick, extracting it from the infected person's body little by little. The long, painful process of extracting the worm often takes two months.
Education and low-technology measures to promote behavioral change are the most effective means of preventing Guinea worm disease. Filtering water is highly effective for reducing Guinea worm disease, especially when combined with other strategies, such as health education. Other important ways to stop the disease cycle include preventing people with an emerging Guinea worm from entering sources of drinking water, constructing boreholes or deep wells, and treating water with a safe chemical larvicide called ABATE®, donated by BASF.
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