Guinea worm nears eradication
Accra, March 27, Ghanadot/GNA - Efforts to eradicate
guinea worm, a neglected tropical disease that has
afflicted people since ancient times, has moved a step
closer towards realisation with 12 more countries being
declared guinea worm free in early March by the
International Commission for the Certification of
Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) Eradication.
"If progress continues at this rate, in less than two
years guinea worm could become the second disease after
smallpox to be pushed into oblivion," a statement by the
World Health Organisation released in Accra on Tuesday
said.
The statement said in the early 1980s, an estimated
three 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 nine 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.
The statement said since its creation in 1995, the
Commission had certified 180 countries as free of Guinea
Worm.
"The Commission is now moving closer to its 2009
deadline for the eradication of the disease worldwide";
WHO said.
Ghana is one of the few countries still battling with
the disease.
Guinea worm 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 millimetres to 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 the leg in the water;
the worms in their leg releases thousands of larvae. The
larvae are then ingested by fleas that live in the
water. Thus the cycle begins again when a person drinks
the water they are in effect drinking the disease.
The socio-economic effects of the disease are numerous.
The disability caused by the disease is seasonal,
usually re-emerging during harvest season in the
villages, which is why it is often called "the disease
of the empty granary".
GNA
