A scourge that once infected millions of the world’s poorest people is close to being wiped out in humans — but infections in animals complicates the picture.
Credit: Maggie Fick/AP/Shutterstock
“It’s pretty amazing,” says Adam Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program of the Carter Center, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The centre announced the numbers in late January. “Fourteen people on a planet of almost eight billion. It’s mind-bending to think about.” But the recognizable nature of Guinea worm disease also makes the parasite easy to detect. In Chad, where 7 of the 14 cases were reported last year, field agents create a network to track contaminated water sources, says Philippe Tchindebet Ouakou,
But Swann isn’t entirely convinced that eradication is possible: she says that it’s hard to control diseases that have animal reservoirs, pointing out that there were 790 reported cases of Guinea worm infection in dogs in Chad alone last year.
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