The Guinea worm looks like an elongated spaghetti noodle.  Infection with this parasite can paralyze humans, sicken entire villages and cripple economies.

The last strong hold of Guinea’s worm is southern Sudan where about 85% of the world’s remaining cases of disease are found.  Optimists believe that by 2015, the disease might be completely eradicated.  This could come into jeopardy if the conflict breaks which could lead to mass migration of people and thereby the spread of disease to wider areas.

The Guinea worm insinuates itself in a human body after a person drinks contaminated water. In the human’s stomach, larvae mature into worms, which then penetrate the intestinal wall and travel through the body’s connective tissue. After about a year without symptoms, the worms prepare to lay eggs. Blisters begin to erupt, usually on the infected person’s legs or feet. From these blisters, the worms emerge. The parasite can also emerge from other areas of the body: arms, head, chest and even the eyes.

Making its way out of its host’s body, the worm causes excruciating pain, which patients have likened being on fire. To soothe the burning, the infected person often submerges his or her wound into a pond or a drinking water source, allowing the emerging worm to deposit its larvae in its desired environment: water. The water is contaminated and the cycle begins anew.

According to CNN,  the fight against the worm today involves more than 1,000 Sudanese who volunteer to educate their home communities about the worm’s life cycle and spread low-tech prevention methods. Health workers hand out nylon water filters, treat drinking water sources with a chemical called Abate and persuade people to use alternate water sources.