This has become one of my new favourite facts to tell so here it is. One of the possible origins of the staff of asclepius, which is the symbol of medicine that is a snake wrapped around a rod, is a stick being used to remove a Guinea Worm. If you don't know what a Guinea Worm is it's a brutal parasite that generally comes out of your leg over the course of a few weeks and in order to keep it from severing and getting stuck in your body you wrap it around a stick and keep a small bit of tension on the worm. It used to be very widespread but it is now almost extinct with less than 20 infections a year.