On the first page of Chapter 5, Dr. Moalem mentions the Guinea worm, a parasite which attacks the human digestive system and grows and mates in there. Dr. Moalem describes the surgical process of removing the worm, which includes a very painful process of wrapping the worm around a stick and removing it, often taking weeks, and often leading to death. Dr. Moalem then mentions that former President Carter led a “two decade effort” to eliminate the guinea worm. “According to the Carter Center, the worldwide incidence of guinea worm infections had dropped from 3.5 millions in 1986 to 10,674 in 2005.”
10,674 infections is still too many, what methods could have helped the limiting of the guinea worm by such a drastic number from 1986 to 2005? What different methods could we use now to try to completely eliminate the guinea worm? Relate this to Big Idea #1, how could the guinea worm spread cross continentally? Hint: (Speciation)
If we stopped all efforts to limit the growth and spread of the guinea worm, would its population begin to grow again or would it stay constant?
( Andrew Komarov, a_komarov@comcast.net)
According to page 96-97, "by understanding how the Guinea worm has evolved in relationship to us, we have the chance to protect people from it." Knowing that people drinking unsanitary water lead the worms to be able to enter human bodies, many programs such as GWEP has tried to make sure people drink from clean water by using filters and wells. Warning more people from drinking unclean water could have helped and to completely eliminate the guinea worm, we can build more sanitary water system for people to drink.
ReplyDeleteIf infested people were to travel to other continents, guinea worm in the infested people can be able to survive in that other continent to reproduce and spread. Speciation then can occur due to different environments due to random chance where genetic drift occurs. This idea relates to the big idea 1 because this idea supports how life evolve with changing environments.
Stopping all efforts to limit the growth and spread of the guinea worm would lead the population of the guinea worms to grow again. Since the restrictions guinea worms faced to get to humans are removed, the worms can now more easily get into more humans. Thus the population of worms would begin to grow again.
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/prevent.html
http://www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/mini_site/facts.html
Woosik Choi (wchoi3@students.d125.org)
One method that helped limit the number of Guinea worms from 1986 to 2005 was education. As Moalem mentioned on page 96, “Former president Jimmy Carter has led a two-decade effort to spread understanding about the parasite’s method of reproduction to every corner of the world, ensuring that its victims avoid water when looking for relief and that its potential victims avoid water that could be infected.” Another Guinea worm limiting method, as mentioned by Woosik, is the use of filters and wells, which restrict the reproduction cycle of the worms and protect potential victims. A third method of guinea worm limitation is to apply chemicals to surface water supplies to kill the water fleas, which eat the Guinea worm larvae. (WASH Away Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Guinea Worm Eradication Program)
ReplyDeleteToday, the end of a parasitic worm that has plagued humans across Africa and Asia for thousands of years is within reach. Guinea worm disease is about to become the second human disease in history to be eradicated. (The Carter Center) Because of the significant progress that we’ve made in limiting the number of Guinea worms, I don’t believe that we should use any different methods other than the ones we are already implementing to completely eliminate the guinea worm.
I agree with Woosik that Guinea worms could spread across the continent through travels on human hosts and that this would eventually result in speciation because of the forces of natural selection acting upon the species. Another way the guinea worm could spread continentally is through the transportation of guinea worm infected water or through travels inside intermediate water flea hosts.
This topic relates to Target 1, (The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life) and it relates to our evolution unit in class. Natural selection led to the evolution of traits in the Guinea worm like larvae that is not destroyed by digestive enzymes in the human stomach and the females’ ability to secrete acid which burns through human skin. These trait were considered “fit” and helped the Guinea worms survive and reproduce.
I agree with Woosik that the Guinea worm population would grow again after we stopped all efforts to limit its growth and spread. This worm has plagued humans for thousands of years. Why wouldn’t it continue to plague us if we stopped our efforts to limit it?
(Ilakkiya Thanigaivelan, ithanig3@students.d125.org)