guinea worm

guinea worm

noun

Definition of GUINEA WORM

: a slender tropical nematode worm of the genus Dracunculus (D. medinensis) that is a human parasite with no known animal reservoir, has an adult female that may attain a length of several feet, and is characterized by a life cycle which includes larval development in copepods of the genus Cyclops, ingestions by humans in contaminated drinking water, passage from the intestine to connective tissues of the thorax and abdomen for maturation and mating, and migration of gravid females to subcutaneous tissues and then out through the skin—called also Medina worm; see dracunculiasis