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As many as 30% of Japanese encephalitis patients are expected to die. Of the survivors, only a third are likely ever to return to full health. The rest live with consequences that range from personality shifts to intellectual disability to seizure disorders; blindness to motor deficits.
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Bad news for Guinea worms
The prospect of eliminating a parasitic disease afflicting humans took a leap forward in 2020, despite restrictions caused by a global pandemic.
2 Feb 2021
Extracting a Guinea worm from the ankle by wrapping it around a stick. Credit: Public Health Image Library/1968
In the same week that the latest WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases report was published (featured in our blog last Friday), the Carter Foundation made two very encouraging announcements concerning Guinea Worm eradication.
The Guinea worm
Known as dracunculiasis, Guinea worm disease is caused by the round worm,
Dracunculus medinensis. Infection occurs when water fleas, infected with the larval stages of the worm, are accidentally ingested. Males fertilise females and then die, but females begin to grow and, after many months, migrate to the extremities of the body, particularly the feet and legs.