Worms come in many forms, types, shapes and consistencies. Most of the worms we think of are land worms but sea worms exist, the most familiar to us being leeches, blood-sucking worms, which can be used in certain medical situations where there is local blood congestion. There are earthworms, roundworms, flatworms, tapeworms, hookworms, pinworms, shipworms, threadworms, segmented worms, arrow worms, jaw worms, tongue worms, horsehair worms, ribbon worms, velvet worms, horseshoe worms and peanut worms. There is even the aptly named Priapulida or phallus worm. There are worms named that are not worms at all. The most familiar to us is the ringworm, which is a fungus. Others like the woodworm, glowworm or firefly, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm and silkworm are really the larva of various insects. There are bookworms and computer worms and there is even a worm named after the coast of West Africa, the Guinea worm but which has been found in calcified Egyptian mummies. The traditional (and still current) method of extracting Guinea a worm by twisting the worm around a stick may have inspired the rod of Aesclepius, a symbol of medicine since ancient Greek times which portrays a snake winding around a staff. There is a misconception that a bottle of tequila must contain a worm. Real tequila does not contain a worm and it never has. Only certain mescals are ever sold con gusano, and that began as a marketing gimmick in the 1940s which spilled over into the world of low-quality "tequila," prompting some American manufacturers of what is now called "cheap tequila" to add a worm, which is really the larval form of a moth.
Say worm too much or too fast and you begin to pronounce it like the English word it stems from, wyrm, used to describe reptiles or the mythical beasts, dragons. There are human worms and humans who are worms. There are dog worms but no dogs who are worms, another advantage dogs have over us. The question, as they are wont to say in Parliament, where they usually have little to say, is, how do you get worms? Politicians will tell you that you get worms from eating sweets. That's the equivalent of saying you need to build a children's hospital 20 minutes away from another children's hospital that is half empty and understaffed. The worms everyone is concerned about, those nasty, nasty worms found in the gut of humans, are three: roundworm or Ascaris; whipworm or Trichuris; and hookworm or Necator. The roundworm is the long whitish one, about four or five inches in length that children used to expel, sometimes in clumps of ten or 12, in the days when worms were the order of the day. That's the one that most people think of because "it big."
The real bad ones are the whipworm and hookworm, which, being much smaller, do not have the visual impact of the roundworm. Both measure less than half an inch but both cause intestinal bleeding, anaemia, malnutrition and weakness. It's possible however to live quite happily, you and your worms together in symbiosis, somewhat like the members of a coalition, as long as you do not have too many worms in the mix. These three gentlemen cause illness through poor sanitation and contaminated soil. They live in the large intestine of humans. They lay their eggs there and the eggs are passed in the faeces of infected people.
If the infected person defecates outside (near bushes, in a garden, or field) or if human faeces are used as fertiliser, eggs are deposited on soil. Or they may be washed up onto the ground surrounding an overflowing cesspit, as can happen during the rainy season.
Worm infection from roundworm and whipworm is caused by ingesting these eggs. This occurs when hands or fingers that have contaminated dirt on them are put in the mouth, as happens with small children playing in the backyard or garden, or by adults consuming vegetables or fruits that have not been carefully cooked, washed or peeled. Hookworm is a bit different. It still is a disease of poor sanitation but you get it by walking barefoot through areas contaminated with faecal matter. The larvae are able to penetrate the skin of the foot, and once inside the body they migrate through the blood system to the lungs, crawl up the trachea and are swallowed down into the stomach and then to the large bowel. Hookworm used to be the scourge of the East Indian population working in the sugar plantations until the Rockefeller Foun- dation, starting in 1914, through a system of chemotherapy, sani-tation with the provision of latrines, and health education, in- cluding the wearing of alpagats, was able to control the disease. That may be one of the reasons why old-time Trinis believe children must wear shoes outside the house. This is how you get worms. By eating or touching crap. So when politicians tell you that sweeties give you worms, don't believe them. Go to a reliable member of the medical profession and get the facts.
