Draculonisis

Posted by S. on March 25, 2003

In Reply to: Draculonisis posted by kitty 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!

Thanks!