Eradication of guinea worm makes huge leap forward

Only 13 cases of guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2022, a provisional figure that, if confirmed, would be the smallest ever documented, the US-based Carter Center reported. The tiny number of cases, down from 15 the previous year, is the result of more than four decades of global efforts to stamp out the parasitic disease by mobilising communities and improving drinking water quality in transmission hotspots. If those efforts ultimately prove successful, guinea worm will not only be the second disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox, it will be the first to be wiped out without a vaccine or medicine. When the centre took on leadership of the global eradication programme in 1986, about 3.5m human cases were recorded annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.