Draculonisis

Posted by Kitty on March 24, 2003

In Reply to: Draculonisis posted by ESC on March 24, 2003

: : I just encountered the word "draculonisis" in the (fascinating) Slate article linked to below, but can find no mention of it any where else on the Internet. And so I was hoping some one might know what it means.

: : Thanks very much for any help.

: I did a search on two U.S. government health sites - HealthFinder and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - and there were zero results.

This seems to be a case of a mental typo when reading the Slate article (fanciful, wishful thinking maybe?) - the word is actually "dracunculiasis." The first hit for this on Google is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site, specifically a Division of Parasitic Diseases page, which states:

"Dracunculiasis, more commonly known as Guinea worm disease, is a preventable infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. Infection affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink."

Check out the page, it is pretty gross!

• Draculonisis S. 03/25/03