Carter Center Announces Only 22 People had Guinea Worm Disease in 2015

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Only 22 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2015, an 83 percent reduction from the 126 cases reported in 2014, the greatest single percentage reduction in human cases in the history of the global campaign. These provisional numbers are reported by the ministries of health in remaining endemic countries and compiled by The Carter Center. When the Center began leading the international campaign to eradicate the parasitic disease in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million Guinea worm cases occurring annually in Africa and Asia.

"As we get closer to zero, each case takes on increasing importance. Full surveillance must continue in the few remaining endemic nations and neighboring countries until no cases remain to ensure the disease does not return," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. "The Carter Center and our partners are committed to seeing that this horrible parasitic disease never afflicts future generations."

As of the end of 2015, there were only 20 endemic Guinea worm villages in four countries — all in Africa, compared to 23,735 villages in 21 countries across two continents in 1991. The 22 indigenous Guinea worm cases were reported in isolated areas of Chad (9), Ethiopia (3), Mali (5), and South Sudan (5).
Carter Center Announces Only 22 People had Guinea Worm Disease in 2015

That could be the second eradicated disease.

 

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Grinnin' Jimmy hopes guinea worm gonna be eradicated in Africa...

Jimmy Carter Hopeful for Guinea Worm Eradication in Africa
February 03, 2016 — Former US President Jimmy Carter says that Guinea worm disease may soon be eradicated, which would be the most exciting accomplishment of his career, although progress is hampered by ongoing conflict in Mali and South Sudan.

Carter has led a campaign since 1986 through his foundation, the Carter Center, to rid the world of the once-widespread disease. With only 22 cases worldwide last year, they may now be on the cusp of wiping it out forever. "It'd be the most exciting and gratifying accomplishment of my life," the 91-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Carter spoke on a call to South Sudan from London, where the former president is visiting. Carter was to address the House of Lords Wednesday to speak about the campaign against the Guinea worm.

Former U.S. President and Carter Center Founder Jimmy Carter watches while Garbino, a young farmer with a Guinea worm disease, receives free treatment from a village volunteer trained by The Carter Center in partnership with the Government of Southern Sudan’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program,Terekeka, Southern Sudan​

Guinea worm is caused by a water-borne parasite that, once ingested, grows over a year inside a person's body into a three-foot-long parasite which burrows out a patient's skin through a painful blister. There is no cure, so infected patients must wait for weeks as the worm is excruciatingly pulled out by being slowly wrapped around a stick. When the Carter Center began its campaign there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm disease in 31 countries. The 22 cases last year were confined to South Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, and Chad. "We've prevented about 80 million people from having Guinea worm, so this is a great accomplishment in itself," he said. "If we keep that up, it'll just be a year or two (before there are zero cases)."

Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan​

Carter, who was diagnosed last summer with melanoma, a serious form of cancer, in his liver and brain, said he will continue treatment despite multiple scans showing no signs of cancer following treatment. A brain scan in December found no cancer, Carter announced at the time. Carter said Tuesday that a scan last week of his chest and abdomen found the cancer had not returned to those areas either. Cancer-free for now, Carter said he has a "good chance" of outlasting the last Guinea worm. "That's my ultimate goal," he said.

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Higher Temperatures Make Zika Mosquito Spread Disease More
February 03, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The mosquito behind the Zika virus seems to operate like a heat-driven missile of disease. The hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting its buffet of dangerous illnesses, scientists say.

Although it is too early to say for this outbreak, past outbreaks of similar diseases involved more than just biology. In the past, weather has played a key role, as have economics, human travel, air conditioning and mosquito control. Even El Nino sneaks into the game. Scientists say you can't just blame one thing for an outbreak and caution it is too early to link this one to climate change or any single weather event.

A blood samples from pregnant women are analyzed for the presence of the Zika virus, at Guatemalan Social Security maternity hospital in Guatemala City​

As the temperature rises, nearly everything about the biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito — the one that carries Zika, dengue fever and other diseases — speeds up when it comes to spreading disease, said entomologist Bill Reisen of the University of California Davis. "With higher temperatures you have more mosquitoes feeding more frequently and having a greater chance of acquiring infection. And then the virus replicates faster because it's hotter, therefore the mosquitoes can transmit earlier in their life," Reisen said. The thermodynamics of mosquitoes are "driven by temperature."

A technician of the Fiocruz institue stores Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to be used in research, in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil​

The hotspots for this Zika outbreak also have been temperature and drought hotspots recently. Recife, Brazil, the largest city in the Zika-struck region, saw its hottest September-October-November on record, about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, according to NASA data. The state of Pernambuco had its hottest and driest year since 1998, according to the state weather agency. And globally, last year was the hottest on record. Scientists have studied Zika far less than other mosquito-borne diseases, so for guidance they often look at dengue fever or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same species of mosquito. Dengue infects as many as 400 million people a year, with a quarter of them sick enough to be hospitalized.

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Guinea worm cases decline...

Wars and Dogs Complicate WHO's Bid to Kill Off Guinea Worm
November 02, 2016 — The World Health Organization's battle to eradicate Guinea worm is being hampered by conflict and infections in dogs but cases have fallen to just 17 so far in 2016, the doctor leading the fight told Reuters on Wednesday.

The debilitating parasite afflicted 3.5 million people 30 years ago, but is now endemic in only four countries: South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Mali. "Globally, we have never been so close to Guinea worm eradication as now," Dieudonne Sankara said. "It will be a colossal achievement." Victory over the worm, which grows up to a meter long before emerging through the skin and which lays its eggs in water, has been repeatedly delayed. But Mali has had no cases this year, while South Sudan has had five, Ethiopia two and Chad 10.

Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a Guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan​

Although the decline in the global number of cases has leveled off, one worm can cause 80 new cases after its incubation period of 10-14 months, so keeping cases low signals the battle is being won. But the security situation in the endemic countries is a complicating factor, as health workers and volunteers often venture hundreds of kilometers into lawless areas, said Ashok Moloo, a WHO information officer. Another challenge was the discovery that dogs — mainly around the Chari river in Chad, but also in the other countries — were picking up Guinea worm infections, too.

That required a new fight, to control the disease among the dog population. In 2015, more than 500 dogs in Chad, 13 in Ethiopia, and one each in Mali and South Sudan, were reported with emerging Guinea worms. Moloo said WHO was optimistic that the dog problem had peaked, although the incubation period meant it was premature to be sure, and the new challenges were unexpected. "People warned us a few years ago: 'You're moving fast, but you will see,'" Sankara said. "And now we are seeing."

Wars and Dogs Complicate WHO's Bid to Kill Off Guinea Worm