The painful and debilitating tropical condition that once affected millions of people in Africa and Asia could be the first to be wiped out without medicines, and the second human disease in history to be eradicated.
The number of Guinea worm disease cases dropped to a record low of 13 last year, a provisional figure that if confirmed, would be the smallest ever documented, the US-based Carter Centre has said.
The small number of cases, down from 15 the year before, is the result of more than 40 years of global efforts to eliminate the parasitic disease by mobilising communities and improving drinking water quality in transmission hotspots, reports The Guardian.
Once a person is infected with Guinea worm, or dracunculiasis, there is no known way to stop the disease from taking its course. About a year after the worm larvae have entered the body, usually through drinking contaminated water, the affected person has severe pain from the formation of a blister on their skin and the slow emergence of one or more worms, measuring up to a metre long. The person can be debilitated for weeks or months.
If continued efforts ultimately prove successful, Guinea worm will not only be the second disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox, it will be the first to be wiped out without a vaccine or medicine.
“Our partners, especially those in the affected villages, work with us daily to rid the world of this scourge. We are heartened that eradication can be achieved soon,” said Jimmy Carter, who co-founded the Carter Centre in 1982.
When the centre took on leadership of the global eradication programme in 1986, about 3.5m human cases were recorded annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Pakistan, India and Uganda are among the countries that have eradicated it. Last year the Democratic Republic of the Congo joined the list.
The remaining endemic countries are Chad, where six of last year’s human cases occurred; South Sudan, which recorded five; Ethiopia, which saw one; and Angola, Mali and Sudan, which recorded no cases. The Central African Republic, a non-endemic country, reported one case, which is under investigation.
For Guinea worm to be declared eradicated, cases in animals also need to be eliminated and here, too, numbers are dropping, with infections in animals falling by more than a fifth last year.
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