The Carter Center and the Government of South Sudan haveannouncedthe world ’s fresh country has been free of Guinea worm for 15 months . This is commonly take the clock time want to establish local elimination of this wicked parasite , although World Health Organization check will take longer . Although at least two countries still have Guinea worm , South Sudan mystify the biggest challenges . If transmission has been ended there , global winner is very close .
Guinea dirt ball ( Guinea worm medinensis ) transmission is seldom fatal , but it is truly horrific . For most parasite and diseases , the painful sensation and suffering they inflict are a by - merchandise of their transmission . For Guinea louse , it is an essential part of their reproductive cycles/second . The worms ' eggs are transmitted through water , and to get there worms do a frightening burn pain in the legs of the mass they infect . victim tolerate in piss to alleviate the pain in the neck , allowing the insect to free egg .
When mass booze from egg - arrest pee physical structure , the eggs think of inside them , beginning the cycle per second again .
In the 1980s it was estimated there were 3.5 million annual cases , mostly in northern and central Africa .
However , Dracunculiasishas a weakness : it almost never infect brute other than humans . If we can block transmission among ourselves , we can end this pest incessantly .
The worm has a lifecycle of about a year . If not a single case occurs over a meter longer than that , then there are no survive worms , or entire eggs , to re-start a rhythm of infection .
This realisation inspired the World Health Organization to start wreak towards endingDracunculiasisforever , and more lately the Carter Center , established by former President Jimmy Carter , has taken the lead . Transmission is foreclose both by pass around awareness , telling victims to avoid still weewee body no matter how atrocious the burning gets , and distributing filtered straws that prevent the ingestion of eggs when drinking from shady water supply supplies . General improvements in plumbing and sanitization have also helped .
Two year ago the Center announce what they hoped would be thefinal pushing , and it looks like they ’re on caterpillar tread .
The campaign has achieved tremendous succeeder . Most of the nations once plagued by the disease have now been hold free , and last year only 30 cases were report . However , South Sudan , a country wreck by civil war and almost entirely miss in substructure , look like the one lieu the dirt ball might survive . In 1995 Carter himself brokered a six - month ceasefire specifically to treat the dirt ball . Now , with no cases report since November 2016 , it seems success has been achieved there .
Last year ’s cases were evenly carve up between Ethiopia and Chad , where efforts will redouble to achieve one of the few species extinctions we actually require .
