In Defense of the Guinea Worm

Honest Lewis
Aug 28, 2017 · 6 min read

(A Polemic)

This is a polemic. An intentionally controversial point of debate designed and worded to be combative. this polemic exists in the service of furthering the debate of planned extinction and whether or not a person who funds such an enterprise is a dirtbag motherfucker. One might point out that I, the author of this piece, has on occasion, advocated, loudly, for the eradication of entire species, including the Bradford or Callery pear tree. I would like to point out that while I may, occasionally, murder one of those non-fruit-bearing sons of a bitches by pouring herbicide and or battery acid into their root system I do not have a billion dollar foundation and Presidential prestige to put forth in my efforts to reduce biodiversity.

Yet.

Nobody loves the Guinea Worm. And nobody ever will.

Dracunculiasis is the name of the infection caused by drinking water that has been contaminated with water fleas that have ingested the eggs of Guinea Worm. And the Guinea Worm is a parasite. In your stomach the water flea is digested and the egg it once contained passes into your intestines. Once in your intestines it hatches and its newborn larva migrates through your intestinal wall into your blood stream where it is transported into your muscular tissue. The Guinea Worm larva tends to favor the muscle tissue of the lower extremities: the thighs, calves, and feet. Once situated the larva begins to grow, fattening itself of of your muscular tissue. It grows undetected and without ill effect for a period of time up to a year when it completes its life cycle by bursting through your skin in a cyst and extending its egg laying posterior end. Pain caused by the cyst bursting modifies your behavior and makes you want to soothe your inflamed limb in cool water so you do. You dip your sore foot or leg in the nearest body of water and ease your suffering. It’s at this point that the Guinea worm ejects its eggs, releasing them into the water, where they will be consumed by water fleas, imbibed by thirsty humans, and continue their very own little circle of life.

Having Dracunculiasis is no picnic. The condition itself is debilitatingly painful. And while the Guinea worm itself may not be fatal, a secondary infection, the result of a worm dangling from an open wound, can be. These secondary infections are often created by failed attempts at treatment. The treatment for a person infected by the Guinea Worm involves wrapping the worm’s body around a stick or a twig and slowly, over the course of days, weeks, or months, unwinding the worm until it is completely removed from the body. The Guinea worm can grow over a 100 centimeters in length and its complete removal can be time consuming and if the worm itself is killed or broken off inside the body it will begin to decay under the skin, creating an infection that can lead to amputation and death. It’s these infections and the resultant fever that resulted in the Guinea Worm becoming known as the fiery serpent.

It was under the name of the fiery serpent that dracunculiasis was described in biblical text. The Guinea worm has been discovered in Egyptian mummies and documented in the 1550B.C. medical text known as the Eber’s Papyrus. In the 2nd century BC the historian Agatharchides of Cnidus described the Guinea worm as endemic to the region around the Dead Sea. The Greeks recognition of the Guinea worm continued as it and its treatment took on the form of the symbol of their medical deity Asclepius, a symbol that is still in use today to signify that which is associated with medicine and a healing, a staff with a serpent wrapped around it.

The Guinea Worm is an organism with history. And it is an organism. Unlike the causes of many other diseases the Guinea Worm is animal life. It’s not a virus or a bacteria or a single celled protozoan — it is life, an organism with a head and a tail and a digestive system and genitals.

That the Guinea worm is animal life is why this polemic has been composed.

It is animal life that is being driven to extinction.

The socioeconomic impact of the Guinea Worm and its effects on areas where the Guinea Worm is endemic are cited as rationale for the eradication of this historically important species should be troubling and should disturb any individual with a vested interest in the biodiversity of our planet. That the eradication of this life-form is justified by the economic impact of lost labor hours and its impact on an individuals ability to earn a living should trouble one as these arguments have been used in the past to justify the eradication of any species whose presence interferes with human economic activity: The American Wolf, The Tiger, any variety of Shark, the thylacine, or any species of animal that just happened to be living in a rain forest you just burned and bulldozed so that you could develop the land for commerce.

The Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, touts the economic benefit of the eradication of the Guinea Worm as one of the necessary drivers behind the forced extinction of this species and lauds their efforts made towards this goal as areas where this disease was originally present have been opened to western economic expansion.

Jimmy Carter proclaims the ascendancy of the idea that if a species is gross and disgusting and maybe thinks of us as source of food and a home and that if it prevents us from going out and getting a job then it should be destroyed. Completely. Eradicated from the face of the Earth. Regardless of its historical importance. Regardless of the notion of biodiversity. Regardless of whether or not a species even has a right to exist. As a life form.

And yeah, The Guinea worm is disgusting. Which is why you don’t see rich ass save-the-whale types following Jimmy Carter around throwing paint at his ecocidal ass and organizing into hippie non-violent eco-terrorist collectives. Because the Guinea worm isn’t cute or cuddly. And doesn’t look good on a t-shirt. And would make a really crappy stuffed animal gift for a kid. The Guinea worm is a worm. It’s a motherfucking worm. You can’t anthropomorphize it into something adorable, that reminds you of yourself, like you do with all those wolves and tigers and lions and polar bears. And you can’t use something slimy that eats people and bursts through their skin like an alien to sell Coke or cars.

So the Guinea Worm is probably going to go extinct.

Because of our ideas and how we apply them.

Just like we will probably go extinct.

Because of our ideas and how we apply them.

Now for the cynical part.

Hey, you’re back there right now, thinking to yourself that this crazy motherfucker is suggesting we let this worm run rampant in poverty and war stricken countries just so that he can feel better about life having value and maybe money not being the most important thing there is.

But no — I’m going to propose a solution that only hurts environmentalists.

The Guinea Worm is a dangerous animal that eats people. And only eats people. The solution I am proposing is the sane, safe, and responsible solution we’ve proposed for such dangerous organisms since the advent of the conservation movement.

We should build a game preserve — Out of people.

A well paid and compensated staff of individuals who will serve as hosts for the Guinea Worm. They will of course have access to medical care to stave off any secondary infections that result from the Guinea Worm bursting through their skin. They will be well-compensated to deal with the disfigurement that results from having a meter long worm protruding from their body. And I imagine there are such individuals who are dedicated to preserving animal life and ensuring that the biodiversity of this planet remains rich and full and we can find such individuals in the animal rights community and use their bodies to ensure that this storied and historically important organism survives the 21st century.

And the ravages of us.

And of our ideas.

)

Honest Lewis

Written by

Novelist, polemicist, activist, and poet. He is the author of the novel Parasites and the Diogenes of Nashville, TN.

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