Thomson Reuters Foundation,
Published: 29 Apr 2021 05:05 PM BdST
Updated: 29 Apr 2021 05:05 PM BdST A guinea worm emerges from the leg of a south Sudanese girl in Juba in this 2007 archive picture. REUTERS/FILE
Okello Aballa Ognum regularly has to walk deep into the jungles of south-west Ethiopia to treat the water ponds that harbour a debilitating parasitic disease. );
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Painstakingly, he measures the water volume to determine how much chemical treatment to use against copepods, the tiny water fleas that carry the Guinea worm larvae.
If ingested by humans, the larvae can grow up to a meter long before emerging through the skin, leading to serious disability and amputation in the worst cases.