Guinea worm disease cases halved in 2024 to date
In 1980, smallpox was declared eradicated from the planet, with the last known natural case of smallpox reported in Somalia in 1977. Smallpox is the first infectious disease to be eradicated, with no naturally occurring cases since then.
What would be the next human infectious disease to be eradicated?
Well, there is polio. There are three serotypes of wild poliovirus: type 1, type 2, and type 3.
Type 2 wild poliovirus was declared eradicated in September 2015, with the last virus detected in India in 1999. Type 3 wild poliovirus was declared eradicated in October 2019. It was last detected in November 2012.
However, Type 1 wild poliovirus remains and after seeing only 12 cases reported globally in 2023, that number has shot up to 86 to date from the two remaining polio endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The battles against smallpox and polio were successful or seen success due to vaccines and incredible vaccine campaigns.
A third infectious disease, Guinea worm disease, caused by the nematode parasite, Dracunculus medinensis is another teetering on the brink of eradication. However, unlike smallpox and polio, there is no vaccine to prevent it.
In 2023, the Carter Center, who began leading the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1986, when there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in at least 21 countries in Africa and Asia, reported 14 cases in five African countries (Cameroon-1, Central African Republic-1, Chad-9, Mali-1 and South Sudan-2).
Through November 12, 2024, the Carter Center reports only 7 provisional cases with another month left in the year. Note: Carter Center states the cases are provisional until officially confirmed in March 2025.
Four cases were reported from Chad and three cases from South Sudan.
Other great news is the number of Guinea worm infections in animals has nearly halved, with 886 cases in 2023 and 448 cases reported year to date in 2024 (again, provisional).
Dracunculus medinensis, the species that infects humans, is the same that infects animals, therefore, eradication requires stopping infections in both.
Considered a neglected tropical disease, Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) is contracted when people consume water contaminated with tiny crustaceans that carry Guinea worm larvae. The larvae mature and mate inside the patient’s body. The male worm dies. After about a year, a meter-long female worm emerges slowly through a painful blister in the skin. Contact with water stimulates the emerging worm to release its larvae into the water and start the process all over again. Guinea worm disease incapacitates people for weeks or months, reducing individuals’ ability to care for themselves, work, grow food for their families, or attend school.
Without a vaccine or medicine, the ancient parasitic disease is being wiped out mainly through community-based interventions to educate and change behavior, such as teaching people to filter all drinking water and preventing contamination by keeping patients from entering water sources.
See more videos on parasites at Parasites 101 and Worms and Germs on Outbreak News TV
In addition, tethering dogs to keep them out of water and not allowing them to eat potentially contaminated fish entrails are key factors in preventing Guinea worm infection in animals.
Eradication means a disease has been eliminated worldwide, with no natural possibility of return. The final cases are the most challenging, requiring persistence, ingenuity, and enormous amounts of resources to operate in difficult, remote, and often insecure areas. Only one human disease has ever been eradicated; that was smallpox, in 1980. For a disease to be declared eradicated, every country in the world must be certified free of human and animal infection, even countries where transmission is never known to have taken place. To date, the WHO has certified 200 countries free of Guinea worm; only six have not been certified: Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan, and Sudan.