Dracunculiasis Eradication: And Now, South Sudan

• DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0090
• Publication Date: 2013-07-10T19:41:13Z
• Authors: Donald R. Hopkins; Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben; Adam Weiss; P. Craig Withers; Mark L. Eberhard; Sharon L. Roy
• Keywords: Chad; Dracunculiasis; Health Promotion; Global Health; Mali; 3. Good health; Sudan; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Population Surveillance; Humans; Ethiopia; Disease Eradication

This report summarizes the status of the global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program as of the end of 2012. Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) has been eliminated from 17 of 21 countries where it was endemic in 1986, when an estimated 3.5 million cases occurred worldwide. Only 542 cases were reported from four countries in 2012, and 103 villages still had indigenous transmission. Most remaining cases were reported from the new Republic of South Sudan, whereas Chad, Ethiopia, and Mali each reported 10 cases or less. Political instability and insecurity in Mali may become the main obstacles to interrupting dracunculiasis transmission forever.