Dracunculiasis News and Research

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Guinea worm cases near eradication, but animal infections pose new challenge

The CDC's latest report in the MMWR reveals significant progress in the global fight against guinea worm disease, with human cases dropping to 13 in 2022 and only three in the first half of 2023. However, challenges remain due to rising animal infections and civil unrest in affected regions.

16 Nov 2023

Final push needed to achieve full eradication of Guinea worm disease

The number of human cases of Guinea worm disease halved in 2021 to a record low of 14, putting the goal of global eradication in sight, the US-based Carter Center has announced.

1 Feb 2022

WHO commemorates World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day with focus on promoting health equity

The World Health Organization kicked off this year's commemoration of World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day under the theme 'Achieving health equity to end the neglect of poverty-related diseases' with a call to focus more on strengthening interventions in order to promote equitable health services for all.

28 Jan 2022

WHO issues new road map to tackle neglected tropical diseases

A new World Health Organization road map for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) proposes ambitious targets and innovative approaches to tackle 20 diseases which affect more than a billion mainly poor people and which thrive in areas where access to quality health services, clean water and sanitation is scarce.

1 Feb 2021

World Health Assembly endorses new road map for neglected tropical diseases for 2021−2030

Today, delegates attending the virtual session of the Seventy-third World Health Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed the new road map for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) for 2021−2030.

12 Nov 2020

WHO marching toward extraordinary progress against neglected tropical diseases, report reveals

Since 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been reporting outstanding success in dealing with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) with 1 billion people estimated to have received treatments in 2015.

19 Apr 2017

WHO urges affected countries to increase investment in tackling neglected tropical diseases

WHO urges affected countries to scale up their investment in tackling 17 neglected tropical diseases in order to improve the health and well-being of more than 1.5 billion people. This investment would represent as little as 0.1% of current domestic expenditure on health in affected low and middle income countries for the period 2015-2030.

19 Feb 2015

WHO warns of dengue's spread, says progress made against NTDs in new report

"Dengue is the world's fastest-spreading tropical disease and represents a 'pandemic threat,' infecting an estimated 50 million people across all continents, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday," Reuters reports.

17 Jan 2013

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases, thanks to a new global strategy, a regular supply of quality assured, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners.

17 Jan 2013

NEJM examines global disease eradication efforts

"Since the last case of naturally occurring smallpox, in 1977, there have been three major international conferences devoted to the concept of disease eradication," an article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports and includes "a brief review of five diseases selected for eradication or elimination that illustrate the potential benefits of such efforts and some of the challenges they pose."

9 Jan 2013

Guinea worm disease on verge of eradication, WHO reports

"The World Health Organization reports Guinea worm disease, which has plagued people for thousands of years, is on the verge of eradication," VOA News reports. "The U.N. agency says fewer than 400 cases of the infectious parasitic disease exist in four African countries, and that it will soon become only the second, after smallpox, to be wiped off the face of the earth," the news service writes.

30 Aug 2012

Washington Post examines Guinea worm eradication efforts

The Washington Post examines global efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease, writing, "The parasitic infection which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world."

29 Aug 2012

Globe and Mail profiles former President Jimmy Carter, Carter Center's efforts to eradiacate guinea worm

The Globe and Mail profiles former President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center's decades-long efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease, also known as dracunculiasis. According to the newspaper, "In 2011, there were 1,060 cases of guinea worm disease identified in the world, in four countries," and "staff and volunteers from the Carter Center have visited every one of the 26,500 villages where guinea worm was identified" to provide education on prevention, as well as treatment.

25 Apr 2012

Major effort to tackle neglected tropical diseases

Thirteen drug companies, the governments of the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lions Club and other smaller charitable organizations on Monday announced a joint effort to tackle 10 neglected tropical diseases in a coordinated fashion.

31 Jan 2012

U.K. government to increase NTD spending fivefold between 2011 and 2015

"The U.K. government has announced a fivefold increase in spending on combating neglected tropical diseases [NTDs] as part of an international effort to help rid the world of a group of infectious diseases that currently affect one billion people and kill more than half a million every year," BMJ reports.

25 Jan 2012

Jimmy Carter calls upon donors to help eradicate Guinea worm disease

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is appealing to countries and donors to eradicate guinea worm disease from the world once and for all. The U.K. pledged $31 million over four years for the effort and has called upon other countries to match them.

6 Oct 2011

Sanofi, DNDi announce three-year research collaboration for neglected tropical diseases

The pharmaceutical company Sanofi and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) on Monday announced a three-year research collaboration to develop drugs for nine neglected tropical diseases, RTTNews reports.

2 Jun 2011

World moves closer to eradicating ancient worm disease

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.

27 Mar 2007

WHO to tackle heart disease, diabetes, cancers, road safety as well as diseases

The World Health Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization, has raised global public health to a new level, by resolving to take more action to prevent death and illness resulting from heart disease, diabetes, cancers, road safety, and lack of access to health services as well as from diseases spread by viruses, bacteria and other dangerous microbes.

22 May 2004