Guinea worm is almost eradicated, in one of the biggest public health wins ever

[milestogo]

Updated by Dylan Matthews on July 22, 2014, 8:30 a.m. ET



It's been decades in the making, but we may finally be close to eradicating the guinea worm, a nonfatal but debilitating parasitic infection that affected millions of people as recently as the 1980s. NPR's Michaeleen Ducleff reports* that the Carter Center, the NGO that has lead the charge to eradicate guinea worm, has counted only 17 cases of the disease in the first five months of this year, compared to 68 in the equivalent time period last year. Here's the trajectory infection rates took from 1986 to 2008:



And note that yet more progress has been made between 2008 and this year; in 2013, there were a total of 148 cases, a nearly 97 percent reduction from the 2008 count. With victory in sight, it's worth reflecting on some of the more remarkable aspects of the campaign that got us here.

It happened without a vaccine or cure
The treatment for Guinea worm hasn't changed in thousands of years — and it's awful. To understand what it is, you need to know how the worm itself works, which is illustrated well in this Carter Center graphic:



Once the worm is exposed, treatment consists of gradually coaxing it out of the affected person, a process that, given that worms can be as long as a meter, can take days if not weeks. It's a hugely time-consuming and painful process. Other than antibiotics to prevent infection at the site of the wound, and painkillers to ameliorate the pain of the process, there's little drugs can do to help.

So if you can't vaccinate people or offer drugs to kill the worm larvae before they grow into worms, breed, and cause intense pain and debilitation, how has the disease been cut back so dramatically?

Read more at: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/22/5912139/guinea-worm-is-almost-eradicated-in-one-of-the-biggest-public-health

[Lochloosa]

1. As my Step-Mother said one time...The last truly Christian President we have had.

[CBGLuthier]

2. Bush Paints shitty self-absorbed paintings and Carter helps save the world

Is there any greater proof of the difference between the right and the left? Of why WE are right and they are so, so wrong.

[Mnemosyne]

3. Eww. Very glad to hear those critters are going away. nt

[postulater]

4. Thank you President Carter. You made a difference.

[cpwm17]

5. Thank you for posting this

and we can thank President Carter also. I was just thinking about the near eradication of the Guinea Worm while out on my walk today. I was wondering how it was going.