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94 THIRD WHO REPORT ON NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES
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Steadfast resolve
In accordance with resolution WHA64.16, WHO has monitored its implementation and
reported progress on the eradication of dracunculiasis to the World Health Assembly every
year since 2012. Each year, the Health Assembly holds an informal meeting of the ministers
of health of affected countries. The meeting held during the Sixty-seventh Health Assembly
in 2014 was attended by 15 country delegations and eight Ministers of Health as well as
interested partners. The Regional Director of the WHO African Region chaired the meeting,
which was addressed by the Director-General in person and by former President Jimmy Carter
through a video message. All the ministers and their representatives reiterated their resolve to
interrupting transmission by 2015 as per the Roadmap’s target (Table 4.4.1).
Table 4.4.1 Milestones for eradicating dracunculiasis
Milestone 2013 2014 2015
Additional countries where
transmission has been interrupted
Ethiopia
Chad, Mali, South
Sudan
Total number of countries targeted for
certifi cation
183 Member States 183 Member States 190 Member States
Total number of countries certifi ed 185 Member States 185 Member States
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REFERENCES
1. Dracunculiasis eradication – global surveillance summary, 2013. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 2014;89:189–204.
2. Dracunculiasis – global surveillance summary, 1992. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 1993;68:125–31.
3. Certification of dracunculiasis eradication: criteria, strategies, procedures. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1996.
4. Renewed transmission of dracunculiasis – Chad, 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2011;60:744–8.
5. Eberhard ML. The peculiar epidemiology of dracunculiasis in Chad. J Trop Med Hyg. 2014;90:61–70.