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Africa
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Medical microbiology
Published in Lois N. Magner, Oliver J. Kim, A History of Medicine, 2017
Sometimes by focusing on a particular tropical disease, such as Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis), and the importance of safe water supplies, public health campaigns have achieved a welcome measure of success. In 2002, the International Conference on the Eradication of Dracunculiasis announced that between 1980 and 2000 the international campaign against Guinea worm disease had reduced the number of cases from 3.5 million to 65,000. About 80% of Guinea worm cases occurred in Sudan, which was also burdened by onchocerciasis (river blindness), trachoma, leishmaniasis, malaria, polio, sleeping sickness, cholera, and other diarrheal diseases. Continuous military conflicts made public health work virtually impossible. Guinea worm disease is not as deadly as many of the other so-called tropical diseases but it is debilitating and painful. Once the Guinea worm larva enters the body, it can remain within the victim while growing close to 3 feet long. Eventually, the worm attempts to escape, a process that causes excruciating pain. According to the World Health Organization, the permanent eradication of dracunculiasis is a realistic goal.
Thiabendazole and Flubendazole
Published in M. Lindsay Grayson, Sara E. Cosgrove, Suzanne M. Crowe, M. Lindsay Grayson, William Hope, James S. McCarthy, John Mills, Johan W. Mouton, David L. Paterson, Kucers’ The Use of Antibiotics, 2017
Dracunculiasis (guinea worm infection) caused by Dracunculus medinensis is now a rare infection owing to the World Health Organization (WHO)-sponsored eradication program. Thiabendazole, administered as 50 or 100 mg/kg daily for 2 days, was as effective as metronidazole for the treatment of dracunculiasis (Kale et al., 1983). Treatment with either agent was somewhat effective in relieving symptoms and healing the skin ulcers. However, the drug was only marginally effective in leading to complete expulsion of the worm (Belcher et al., 1975; Sastry et al., 1978). Thus the limited efficacy and poor tolerability made the agent a poor tool for mass chemotherapy campaigns.
Communicable diseases
Published in Liam J. Donaldson, Paul D. Rutter, Donaldsons' Essential Public Health, 2017
Liam J. Donaldson, Paul D. Rutter
Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) is caused by a nematode roundworm parasite, Dracunculus medinensis, that is mainly found in static water sources where water fleas harbour Guinea worm larvae. The life cycle of the parasite continues within the human body after someone drinks infested water. Larvae turn into worms that then form blisters on the skin. People tend to bathe these excruciatingly painful areas, which releases larvae back into the water and the cycle continues. Infected people become sick, listless and unproductive but do not usually die. There is no drug treatment, and the worm must be gradually (a few centimetres a day) and painfully extracted through the skin (it can be up to a metre long) by wrapping it around a stick and ensuring that it does not break off, leaving a part of the worm behind. Elimination of this disease – that in 2016 affected just 25 people in five countries – requires supplying clean water, early diagnosis and treatment, health education of communities, and spraying affected areas with larvicides.
Temephos, an organophosphate larvicide for residential use: a review of its toxicity
Published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2022
Juan Pablo Martínez-Mercado, Adolfo Sierra-Santoyo, Francisco Alberto Verdín-Betancourt, Aurora Elizabeth Rojas-García, Betzabet Quintanilla-Vega
Temephos (Figure 1) is used mainly to kill and control the growth of some vectors (such as mosquitoes, blackflies, and fleas) that transmit diseases, including dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and dracunculiasis (WHO 2006). Temephos was synthesized by American Cyanamid between 1963 and 1967, and it is marketed under the name of Abate® as an emulsified compound at different concentrations or in a granular form, which may contain some impurities, such as iso-temephos (1.4%) (WHO 2008). Other commercial formulations include Abathion, Larvafos, Larvate, T.M. FOS, etc.