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 (Schlein, 8/28). "The number of Guinea worm disease cases has dropped from 3,190 in 2009 to just under 396 cases during the first six months of 2012, according to the [WHO]," the U.N. News Centre notes, adding, "Gautam Biswas of WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases told a news conference in Geneva ... that aggressive public health and hygiene awareness among the communities where the disease is still endemic is vital to eradicating it" (8/28).