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In 1990, dracunculiasis, or guinea worm disease, was bringing pain, ulcers, fever, and joint deformities to approximately 3 million adults and children in Africa and Asia who were drinking infected water. At the 1990 World Summit for Children, the governments of all affected countries agreed to attempt its eradication by the end of 1995.
The table summarizes progress so far. The bottom line is that there were approximately 140,000 victims of guinea worm disease in 1994 a reduction of well over 90%. Village-based activities to improve water supply, and enable people to protect themselves by filtering or straining unsafe water, have more than halved the number of villages where dracunculiasis is endemic from about 23,000 at the start of 1993 to just over 10,000 at the beginning of 1995.
The year also brought fresh challenges. New endemic villages were discovered in Ethiopia and in 17 villages of Yemen. The first national search in the Sudan identified 28,900 cases.
The eradication effort is in most cases a joint venture between governments, UNICEF, WHO, the Carter Center's Global 2000 programme, the WHO Collaborating Center at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, and other institutions.
Decline and fall Cases Cases 1993 1994 % fall -------------------------------------- Pakistan 2 0 100 Benin 16300 3400 79 Uganda 42900 10400 76 Senegal 800 200 75 Cameroon 72 22 69 Mali 12000 5400 55 Ghana 17900 8400 53 Nigeria 75800 35700 53 Togo 10300 5000 51 Chad 1200 600 50 India 800 400 50 Côte d'Ivoire 8000 5100 36 Burkina Faso 8300 6900 17 Mauritania 5900 5000 15 Niger 25300 23600 7 Kenya 35 37 -6 Ethiopia 1100 1300 See story above Sudan 3000 28900 See story above Yemen - 74 See story above Total 229700 140400 39Source: WHO Collaborating Center for Research, Training, and Eradication of Dracunculiasis at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guinea worm wrap-up, no. 47, March/April 1995 (in press).