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ERADICATION OF GUINEA WORM DISEASE

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ABOUT <strong>GUINEA</strong><br />

<strong>WORM</strong> <strong>DISEASE</strong><br />

Guinea worm disease is an affliction of<br />

2011<br />

poverty, debilitating residents of remote<br />

COTE GHANA<br />

D’IVOIRE 2015<br />

and marginalized communities in sub-<br />

2013<br />

Saharan Africa. A painful and incapacitating<br />

TOGO BENIN 2009<br />

waterborne disease, it negatively affects health,<br />

2011<br />

agricultural productivity, school attendance, and<br />

overall quality of life in the communities where<br />

it is found. 1 Guinea worm disease is caused by<br />

the parasitic worm Dracunculus medinensis, which<br />

infects people who drink water from stagnant<br />

sources containing microscopic infective larvae<br />

harbored by tiny copepods (“water fleas”). During<br />

the yearlong incubation period, individuals do<br />

not know they are infected and become unwitting<br />

carriers of the parasite until the adult female worms,<br />

measuring up to one meter in length, emerge. An<br />

emerging worm causes a blister on the victim’s skin,<br />

accompanied by a severe burning sensation and<br />

pain, followed by an open lesion with a protruding<br />

Guinea worm. When a patient cools the wound in<br />

a stagnant water source, the worm releases hundreds<br />

1989<br />

1990<br />

of thousands of larvae, which are readily ingested<br />

1991<br />

by copepods, contaminating the water source and<br />

1992<br />

continuing the transmission cycle.<br />

There is no drug to cure Guinea worm<br />

disease or vaccine to prevent it, humans do<br />

not develop immunity to the disease, and<br />

there is no known wild animal reservoir from<br />

which the disease can return to humans once<br />

transmission is interrupted. However, disease<br />

transmission can be prevented. The Carter<br />

Center — in partnership with the national Guinea<br />

worm eradication programs of the ministries of<br />

health of affected countries, the World Health<br />

Organization (WHO), and strategic partners such<br />

as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<br />

and UNICEF — have pioneered community-based<br />

responses to prevent transmission, and ultimately<br />

eradicate Guinea worm disease by 2020.<br />

MAURITANIA<br />

2009 MALI<br />

NIGER<br />

5<br />

CHAD SUDAN<br />

SENEGAL<br />

2013<br />

9<br />

YEMEN<br />

2002<br />

2004<br />

2004<br />

BURKINA FASO<br />

NIGERIA<br />

CENTRAL AFRICAN<br />

2013 REPUBLIC SOUTH ETHIOPIA<br />

2007 SUDAN 3<br />

CAMEROON<br />

5<br />

2007<br />

UGANDA<br />

2009 KENYA<br />

1994<br />

1993<br />

1994<br />

1995<br />

1996<br />

1997<br />

1998<br />

1999<br />

2000<br />

2001<br />

2002<br />

2003<br />

2004<br />

2005<br />

2006<br />

2007<br />

2008<br />

2009<br />

2010<br />

2011<br />

2012<br />

2013<br />

2014<br />

2015<br />

77,863<br />

78,557<br />

164,977<br />

129,852<br />

96,293<br />

75,223<br />

63,718<br />

54,638<br />

32,193<br />

16,026<br />

10,674<br />

25,217<br />

9,585<br />

4,619<br />

3,190<br />

1,797<br />

1,058<br />

542<br />

148<br />

126<br />

22<br />

152,814<br />

229,773<br />

374,202<br />

543,585<br />

623,579<br />

PAKISTAN<br />

1996<br />

Progress on Guinea<br />

worm eradication since<br />

1986, by country<br />

Year Certified by<br />

WHO as Free of<br />

Guinea Worm Disease<br />

Year Guinea Worm<br />

Transmission Halted<br />

Cases Remaining<br />

at End of 2015<br />

(provisional count)<br />

Annual number of cases of Guinea worm disease worldwide since 1989<br />

892,055<br />

INDIA<br />

2000<br />

3

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