The actual treatment for guinea worm is basic. You soak the worm’s emerging site with cold water, which it responds to by coming out more quickly. Then you gently tug the worm out little by little. If it breaks, it can die and calcify inside the body—causing permanent disability. Usually it takes about 2 weeks to pull the worm out completely. So, each day the patient needs a dressing—a little pulling, and then tying up the hanging worm with gauze so it does not re-enter the body. Then a gauze bandage is wrapped completely around the site to prevent infection. Guinea worm emerges at any part of the body, and one patient can have multiple guinea worms. I helped with the dressings once a week, and learned so much about a disease I’d never heard about before coming to Ghana!