Update: progress toward global eradication of dracunculiasis, January 2007-June 2008

Abstract

The World Health Assembly (WHA) first adopted a resolution calling for the eradication of dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) in 1986, when an estimated 3.5 million cases occurred annually in 20 countries (17 in Africa and three in Asia) and 120 million persons were at risk for the disease. Because of slow mobilization in countries with endemic disease, the global dracunculiasis eradication program did not meet the 1995 target date for eradicating dracunculiasis that was set by African ministers of health in 1988 and confirmed by WHA in 1991. In 2004, WHA established a new target date of 2009. This report updates the progress of the global dracunculiasis eradication program since January 2007. At the end of December 2007, dracunculiasis remained endemic only in Sudan, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger. During 2007, a total of 9,585 cases were reported worldwide from 3,573 villages with endemic disease, including 15 cases exported from one country to another (Table 1). From 2006 to 2007, the number of indigenous cases decreased by 61% (from 25,195 to 9,770). Of the 2,308 cases occurring during January-June 2008, 98% were reported from Sudan, Ghana, and Mali (Table 2). Sporadic violence in areas with endemic dracunculiasis in Sudan and Mali is a major concern and poses the greatest challenge to the success of the global dracunculiasis eradication program.