A neglected tropical disease that has afflicted people since ancient times has moved a step closer towards eradication. In early March, twelve more countries were declared Guinea Worm Free by the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) Eradication. If progress continues at this rate, in less than 2 years Guinea Worm could become the second disease after Smallpox to be pushed into oblivion.
In the early 1980s, an estimated 3 million people in more than 20 countries were affected by Dracunculiasis, more commonly referred to as Guinea Worm Disease. Today, that number has significantly dropped to about 25 000 cases in 9 countries. "This is the culmination of years of effort by local and international groups to see this disease eradicated," says Dr Lorenzo Savioli, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization. Since its creation in 1995, the Commission has certified 180 countries as free of Guinea Worm . The Commission is now moving closer to its 2009 deadline for eradication of the disease worldwide.
The Sixth Meeting of the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication held 5-7 March at World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, brought together representatives from a range of organizations, including the Austrian government, the Carter Center, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and UNICEF to discuss and certify 12 more countries.
In 1995, WHO created the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication as an independent body consisting of scientific experts from all over the world. The group meets periodically to assess global progress towards the eradication of Guinea Worm Disease in countries where it remains endemic and to review the list of countries applying for certification - the WHO stamp of approval that declares them free of GWD transmission.
For countless generations, people have suffered from Guinea Worm Disease (GWD). The disease was found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" often referred to in texts from pharaonic Egypt and Assyrian Mesopotamia.
GWD is endemic in some villages of sub-Saharan Africa. The worm is spread through contaminated water. The effects of the disease are crippling. Its victims develop large ulcers, usually in the lower leg. The ulcers swell, at times to the size of a tennis ball, and burst - releasing a spaghetti-like parasitic worm ranging in length from 550-800 millimetres (0.8 meters).
Victims experience a pain so excruciating that they say it feels as if their leg is on fire. The searing pain compels people to jump into water, often the community's only source of drinking water, to relieve the pain. When the infected person immerses their leg in the water, the worm in their leg releases thousands of larvae. The larvae are then ingested by water fleas that live in the water. Thus the cycle begins again--- when a person drinks the water, they are in effect drinking in the disease.