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An X-ray revealed the ghastly "guinea worm" or dracunculiasis medinensis had split into two pieces, each a few centimetres long in his lower calf and foot.

Doctors believe that the worm may have been living inside the man since arriving from Australia four years ago.

The man, from Sudan, sought help for a swollen foot that had been painful for nearly a year.

Doctor Jonathan Darby, an infectious disease physician at St Vincent's Hospital, surgically removed the parasite from the 38-year-old man and found it to be the rare worm.

The parasite which can grow to great lengths, enters people's body through drinking water containing water fleas that have ingested Dracunculus larvae.

Commonly found in southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Ghana and Chad, female worms move through tissue in the abdomen and into the legs, feet or toes causing.

It then travels through the walls of its victims' intestines and digs through their body to try to exit out of a painful blister on their skin.

A person carrying the parasite is not a threat to other humans, although there is no treatment for the disease.

Dr Darby said a burning sensation makes victims put the affected part of their body into water but this causes the females to discharge their larvae, setting in motion a new life cycle.

He said: That whole process can take years. It can sit inside the human body alive for years or die, degenerate, and then cause problems in the area like it did for our patient.

"If you google it, you'll find some fairly dramatic photos of people getting match sticks and twirling their worm out centimetre per day."

Dr Darby added that live worms are usually delicately pulled from people's exit wounds over days or weeks to ensure they don't break and cause more harm.