Guinea worm wrap-up

• Other Authors: WHO Collaborating Center for Research, Training and Eradication of Dracunculiasis., Emory University. Carter Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Language: English
• Subjects: Communicable Disease Control; Dracunculiasis/prevention & control; Dracunculus Nematode; Greenland
• Online Access: http://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/29519/

Global Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm) Eradication Initiative : a report to the 63rd World Health Assembly May 2010. The global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program did not achieve the goal set in 2004 to interrupt transmission of dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) everywhere by the end of 2009. However, the number of countries where dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) was reported has been reduced from 11 countries in 2004 to 4 countries in 2009, the number of cases reported has been reduced from 16,026 to 3,190, and the number of villages reporting indigenous cases of the disease has been reduced from 3,109 to 645 (Figures 1, 2, Table 1). Nigeria, which reported more cases than any other country (over 653,000 in 1988/89), and Niger reported zero cases for an entire calendar year for the first time in 2009. The number of cases of dracunculiasis reported in 2009 is the lowest annual number of cases reported since the eradication campaign began (Figure 3). As illustrated in Figure 2, coverage rates for almost all interventions except safe water supply were increased significantly between 2004 and 2009. The apparent decrease in coverage of health education is attributed to incomplete or delayed reports of that indicator from Southern Sudan, and not an actual decrease. Only four of the nine countries that had interrupted transmission were certified as free of dracunculiasis by the World Health Organization by 2004, whereas nine of the 16 countries that have interrupted transmission had been certified by WHO by the end of 2009. At the end of 2009, WHO had certified a total of 187 countries and territories as free of dracunculiasis. Not yet certified by WHO are the four still-endemic countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Sudan), seven recently-endemic countries that have interrupted transmission (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Togo), and six never– or not-recently-endemic countries (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, South Africa) or territories (Greenland) (Figure 4).