Dracunculiasis Guinea Worm &Elimination Bill Brieger | 29 Jul 2024 06:54 pm
Jimmy Carter Still fighting Guinea Worm at 100 Years
As President Jimmy Carter nears his 100th birthday, his opponent of nearly four decades, guinea worm disease, is nearing its end. By emphasizing the importance of data and surveillance, the Carter Center has found no reported cases in the first three months of 2024, and only 14 cases in 2023.
The effort to eliminate the disease has been approaching zero annual cases for a decade, but the remote settings where the worm is found coupled with civil strife have made this water borne pathogen a challenging opponent. The remaining cases have been confined to Sahelian countries where clean water is always in short supply and is more serious now with climate change. To add to the challenges, domestic dogs that share seasonal ponds with their humans have also become a reservoir of guinea worm in places like Chad.
The coming months will provide crucial evidence on elimination progress in these countries where the advent of the rainy season when small ponds begin to fill and the small crustaceans that serve as vector or intermediate for the worm larvae emerge. This is a time in which people who might have swallowed the infected crustaceans from local ponds last year may experience the emergence of a subcutaneous worm that may have been growing for the past year. Hopefully 2024 and President Carter’s 100th year will mark the end of guinea worm either with no new dates, or if a few do emerge, they are quickly identified and contained so the affected person does not enter a water source with an open ulcer.
Lack of safe and clean water remains a serious problem throughout the region and always poses a threat for the reintroduction of guinea worm in the 200 countries that have already certified elimination. Progress for human development demands that we continue the fight for safe and reliable water even after there is no more guinea worm.