In 1986, the world health community began a campaign to eliminate the guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) from the entire world. If successful, this will be only the second global disease ever completely eradicated (smallpox, which was abolished in 1977 was first), and the only time that a human parasite will have been totally exterminated worldwide. Known as the fiery serpent, the guinea worm has been a terrible scourge in many tropical countries. Dracunculiasis (pronounced dra-KUNK-you-LIE-uh-sis) or guinea worm disease starts when people drink stagnant water contaminated with tiny copepod water fleas (called cyclops) containing guinea worm larvae. Inside the human body, the worms grow to as long as 3 ft (1 m). After a year of migrating through the body, a threadlike adult worm emerges slowly through a painful skin blister. Most worms come out of the legs or feet but they can appear anywhere on the body...