man's foot was likely inside his body for at least the past four
years. UPI report:
Dr. Jonathan Darby of St. Vincent's Hospital said the man, who moved
to Melbourne from Sudan about four years ago, came into the hospital
with a swollen foothe said had been causing him pain for about a year.
Darby said an X-ray discovered there were two segments of
Dracunculiasis medinensis, or "guinea worm," in his ankle and foot.
Doctors writing in the journal Pathology said the worm, which can grow
to more than three feet in length, likely died inside the man's foot
and split into pieces.
The doctors said the man was likely infected before he left Sudan. The
guinea worm infects humans through the water they drink and borrows
through the body to exit through the foot, doctors said. The exit
often creates a burning sensation that leads patients to submerge the
affected foot in water, allowing the worm to infect the water with its
larvae.
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