ORPHA:231
Dracunculiasis
Also known as: Dracunculosis · Guinea worm disease · Medina worm disease · Medinensis
Publications
3,608
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
971
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
1/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) characterized by a painful burning skin lesion from which the Dracunculus medinensis parasite emerges approximately 1 year after infection resulting from consumption of unsafe drinking water containing parasite-infected copepods (Cyclops spp., microcrustacea also called water fleas).
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0016472
- MeSH:D004320
- UMLS:C0013100
- NCIT:C84677
Additional Mondo synonyms (5)
Dracunculus medinensis caused disease or disorder · Dracunculus medinensis disease or disorder · Dracunculus medinensis infectious disease · dracontiasis · medinensis
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
1/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
3,608 matched papers (1,439 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
3,608
3,608 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
3,608 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
1,439 in the last 10 years · low confidence
Phrase hits: 3,608 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
971
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01
- 02Weiss AJ21 papers · 2026
Guinea Worm Eradication Program, The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Roy SL20 papers · 2024
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Research, Training, and Eradication of Dracunculiasis, CDC
Papers in Europe PMC - 04
- 05Cleveland CA16 papers · 2026
3Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06
- 07Yabsley MJ15 papers · 2026
Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Eberhard ML12 papers · 2024
Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Zirimwabagabo H12 papers · 2026
The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Guagliardo SAJ9 papers · 2024
The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
low confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Dracunculiasis" OR "Dracunculosis" OR "Guinea worm disease" OR "Medina worm disease" OR "Medinensis" OR "Dracunculus medinensis infectious disease" OR "dracontiasis"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Dracunculiasis" OR "Dracunculosis" OR "Guinea worm disease" OR "Medina worm disease" OR "Medinensis" OR "Dracunculus medinensis infectious disease" OR "dracontiasis"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Synonyms dropped by stoplist: Dracunculus medinensis caused disease or disorder; Dracunculus medinensis disease or disorder
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (3608) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity
Ingested 2026-07-26T12:59:30.339Z