dracunculiasis

File:Dracunculiasis life cycle CDC.jpg

Dracunculiasis is caused by infection with the roundworm Dracunculus medinensis.{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/gen_info/faqs.html |access-date=8 August 2022 |title=Guinea worm disease frequently asked questions |publisher=US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |date=11 August 2023 |archivedate=28 May 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528075545/https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/gen_info/faqs.html |url-status=live }} D. medinensis larvae reside within small aquatic crustaceans called copepods. Humans typically get infected when they unintentionally ingest copepods while drinking water. In some cases, infected copepods are consumed by fish or frogs, which are then consumed by humans or other animals, passing along the D. medinensis larvae.{{sfn|Hopkins|Weiss|Torres-Velez|Sapp|2022|loc="Chad"}} During digestion the copepods die, releasing the D. medinensis larvae. The larvae exit the digestive tract by penetrating the stomach and intestine, taking refuge in the abdomen or retroperitoneal space (behind the organs near the back of the abdomen).{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/dracunculiasis/index.html |access-date=27 April 2024 |title=Dracunculiasis – DPDx |publisher=US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |date=9 May 2018 |archivedate=23 January 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123062300/https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/dracunculiasis/index.html |url-status=live }} Over the next two to three months the larvae develop into adult male and female worms. The male remains small at {{convert|4|cm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|0.4|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide; the female is comparatively large, often over {{convert|100|cm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.5|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=287}} Once the worms reach their adult size they mate, and the male dies.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} Over the ensuing months, the female migrates to connective tissue or along bones, and continues to develop, as do her embryos.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}

About a year after the initial infection, the female migrates to the skin, typically in the host's lower leg or foot, forms an ulcer, and emerges. When the wound touches fresh water, the female spews a milky-white substance containing hundreds of thousands of larvae into the water.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=67}} Over the next several days as the female emerges from the wound, it can continue to discharge larvae into the surrounding water.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=67}} The larvae are eaten by copepods, and after two to three weeks of development, they are infectious to humans again.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|pp=287–288}}

File:Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm) removal (MIS 67-1563-1), National Museum of Health and Medicine (4951692786).jpg

The first signs of dracunculiasis occur around a year after infection, as the full-grown female worm prepares to leave the infected person's body. As the worm migrates to its exit site – typically the lower leg – some people have allergic reactions, including hives, fever, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} Upon reaching its destination, the worm forms a fluid-filled blister under the skin.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=287}} Over 1–3 days, the blister grows larger, begins to cause severe burning pain, and eventually bursts, leaving a small open wound. The wound remains intensely painful as the worm slowly emerges over several weeks to months.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=67}}

If an affected person submerges the wound in water, the worm spews a white substance, releasing its larvae into the water.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=287}} As the worm emerges, the open blister often becomes infected with bacteria, resulting in redness and swelling, abscesses, or, in severe cases, gangrene, sepsis, or tetanus.{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/disease.html |access-date=8 August 2022 |title=Guinea worm – disease |publisher=US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |date=4 February 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822025707/https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/disease.html |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}} When the secondary infection is near a joint (typically the ankle), the damage to the joint can result in stiffness, arthritis, or contractures.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}}{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=68}}

Infected people commonly harbor multiple worms – on average 1.8 worms per person,{{sfn|Greenaway|2004|loc="Clinical manifestations"}} but as many as 40 – which will emerge from separate blisters at the same time.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} Ninety percent of worms emerge from the legs or feet. However, worms can emerge from anywhere on the body.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}

Dracunculiasis is diagnosed by visual examination – the thin white worm emerging from the blister is unique to this disease.{{cite web |url=https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/infectious-diseases/nematodes-roundworms/dracunculiasis |accessdate=27 April 2024 |title=Dracunculiasis |vauthors=Marie C, Petri WA |date=September 2022 |publisher=Merck & Co. |archivedate=26 April 2021 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426035807/https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/infectious-diseases/nematodes-roundworms/dracunculiasis |url-status=live }} Dead worms sometimes calcify and can be seen in the subcutaneous tissue by X-ray.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}} Patients usually report a history of drinking contaminated water from stagnant sources.{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a3.htm?s_cid=mm6745a3_w|accessdate=22 March 2025|title=Progress Toward Global Eradication of Dracunculiasis — January 2017–June 2018 |author=Donald R. Hopkins |display-authors=etal |date=16 November 2018|publisher=CDC }} Recent developments have enhanced the early and non-invasive identification of Dracunculus medinensis using two methods. The first method involves polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, specifically the qPCR protocol, targeting the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) gene of Guinea worm.{{cite journal |title=Development and validation of a quantitative PCR for the detection of Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) |author1=Coker SM |author2=Box EK |author3=Stilwell N |author4=Thiele EA |author5=Cotton JA |display-authors=etal| date=7 October 2022|journal=PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases|volume=16 |issue=10 |pages=e0010830 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0010830 |doi-access=free |pmid=36206300 |pmc=9581357 }} The second method utilizes immunological tests, where antigen detection assays or serological tests have been developed to recognize specific markers linked to the parasite. This testing could potentially detect prepatent infections up to six months before the worms appear, making it practically significant.{{cite journal |title=Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) and the Eradication Initiative |author1=Cairncross S |author2=Muller R |author3=Zagaria N. |date=1 April 2002 |journal=Clinical Microbiology Reviews|volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=223–246 |doi=10.1128/cmr.15.2.223-246.2002 |pmid=11932231 |pmc=118073 }}

File:Dracunculus medinensis.jpg

There is no medicine to kill D. medinensis or prevent it from causing disease once within the body.{{Cite web|url=https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dracunculiasis-(guinea-worm-disease)|date=30 January 2025|title=Dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease)|publisher=World Health Organization|language=en |quote=The Democratic Republic of the Congo, once endemic in 1950s, received certification in December 2022. ... Five countries – Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan – remain endemic, while Sudan is currently in the pre-certification stage and Cameroon a certified country is experiencing a cross-border transmission at its extreme-northern border with Chad.}} Instead, treatment focuses on slowly and carefully removing the worm from the wound over days to weeks.{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/treatment.html |accessdate=27 April 2024 |title=Management & Treatment |publisher=US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |date=4 February 2022 |archive-date=7 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207214713/https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/treatment.html |url-status=live }} Once the blister bursts and the worm begins to emerge, the wound is soaked in a bucket of water, allowing the worm to empty itself of larvae away from a source of drinking water. As the first part of the worm emerges, it is typically wrapped around a piece of gauze or a stick to maintain steady tension on the worm, encouraging its exit. Each day, several centimeters of the worm emerge from the blister, and the stick is wound to maintain tension.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} This is repeated daily until the full worm emerges, typically within a month.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} If too much tension is applied, the worm can break and die, leading to severe swelling and pain at the site of the ulcer.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}

Treatment for dracunculiasis also includes regular wound care to avoid infection of the open ulcer. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cleaning the wound before the worm emerges. Once the worm begins to exit the body, the CDC recommends daily wound care: cleaning the wound, applying antibiotic ointment, and replacing the bandage with fresh gauze. Painkillers like aspirin or ibuprofen can help ease the pain of the worm's exit.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}

Dracunculiasis is a debilitating disease, causing substantial disability in around half of those infected.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}} People with worms emerging can be disabled for the three to ten weeks it takes the worms to fully emerge.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}} When worms emerge near joints, inflammation or infection of the affected area can result in permanent stiffness, pain, or destruction of the joint.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}} Some people with dracunculiasis have continuing pain for 12 to 18 months after the worm has emerged.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}} Around 1% of dracunculiasis cases result in death from secondary infections of the wound.{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=288}}

When dracunculiasis was widespread, it often affected entire villages at once.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=68}} Outbreaks occurring during planting and harvesting seasons severely impaired a community's agricultural operations – earning dracunculiasis the descriptor "empty granary disease" in some places.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=68}} Communities affected by dracunculiasis also see reduced school attendance as children of affected parents must take over farm or household duties, and affected children may be physically prevented from walking to school for weeks.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4.2 "Socio-Economic Impact"}}

Infection does not create immunity, so people can repeatedly experience dracunculiasis throughout their lives.{{sfn|Callahan|Bolton|Hopkins|Ruiz-Tiben|2013|loc=Introduction}}

File:Preventing Guinea worm disease in Chad (34173755220).jpg

There is no vaccine for dracunculiasis, and once infected with D. medinensis there is no way to prevent the disease from running its full course. Consequently, efforts to reduce the burden of dracunculiasis focus on interrupting the reproduction cycle of D. medinensis via water supplies. A mainstay of eradication efforts is the improvement of drinking water. Nylon filters, finely woven cloth, or specialized filter straws can all remove copepods from drinking water, eliminating transmission risk.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=289}} Water sources can also be treated with the larvicide compound temephos, which kills copepods,{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=111}} and contaminated water can be treated by boiling.{{Cite web |url=https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/dracunculiasis/chemical-control-of-copepods |accessdate=6 December 2023 |title=Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases |website=World Health Organization |archivedate=7 December 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207182436/https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/dracunculiasis/chemical-control-of-copepods |url-status=live }} Where possible, open sources of drinking water are replaced by deep wells that can serve as sources of clean water.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=111}} Public education campaigns inform people in affected areas how dracunculiasis spreads and encourage those with the disease to avoid soaking their wounds in bodies of water that are used for drinking.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=110}}

Dracunculiasis is now rare, with 13–15 human cases reported worldwide per year (15 in 2021, 13 in 2022, 14 in 2023, and 15 in 2024). This is down from 27 cases in 2020 and dramatically less than the estimated 3.5 million annual cases in 20 countries in 1986 – the year the World Health Assembly called for dracunculiasis's eradication.{{sfn|WHOfactsheet|2022|loc=Figure 1}}{{sfn|Despommier|Griffin|Gwadz|Hotez|2019|p=285}} Dracunculiasis remains endemic primarily in two countries{{snd}} Chad and South Sudan.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-31 |title=Guinea Worm Wrap-Up #286 |url=https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/wrap-up/286.pdf |access-date=2022-11-04 |website=The Carter Center}} Four additional countries remain to be certified as free of dracunculiasis transmission that have had no reported cases since at least 2023: Angola, Ethiopia, Mali, and Sudan. One of these four, Sudan, is pre-certified but not yet confirmed free of transmissions. Additionally, although Cameroon has been certified free of internal transmission since 2007, it has experienced three cases since 2019 along its border with Chad.

As of 16 April 2025, one case has been provisionally reported in 2025.{{cite web |url=https://www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/case-totals.html |title=Guinea Worm Case Totals |website=Carter Center |access-date=23 May 2025}}

Dracunculiasis is a disease of extreme poverty, occurring in places where there is poor access to clean drinking water.{{sfn|Spector|Gibson|2016|p=109}} Cases tend to be split roughly equally between males and females and can occur in all age groups.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4. "Epidemiology"}} Within a given place, dracunculiasis risk is linked to occupation; people who farm or fetch drinking water are most likely to be infected.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4. "Epidemiology"}}

When dracunculiasis was widespread, it had a seasonal cycle, though the timing varied by location. Along the Sahara desert's southern edge, cases peaked during the mid-year rainy season (May–October) when stagnant water sources were more abundant.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4. "Epidemiology"}} Along the Gulf of Guinea, cases were more common during the dry season (October–March) when flowing water sources dried up.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4. "Epidemiology"}}

Diseases consistent with the effects of dracunculiasis are referenced by writers throughout antiquity. Plutarch's Symposiacon refers to a (lost) description by the 2nd-century BCE writer Agatharchides concerning a "hitherto unheard-of disease" in which "small worms issue from [people's] arms and legs ... insinuating themselves between the muscles [to] give rise to horrible sufferings".{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} Greco-Roman and Persian physicians, including Galen, Rhazes, and Avicenna, also wrote of diseases whose symptoms are consistent with dracunculiasis, though there was some disagreement as to the nature of the disease, with some attributing it to a worm, while others considered it to be a corrupted part of the body emerging.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}}

Some have proposed links between dracunculiasis and other prominent ancient texts and symbols. In a 1674 treatise on dracunculiasis, Georg Hieronymous Velschius ascribed serpentine figures in several ancient icons to Dracunculus, including Greek sculptures, signs of the zodiac, Arabic lettering, and the Rod of Asclepius, a common symbol of the medical profession.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} Similarly, parasitologist Friedrich Küchenmeister proposed in 1855 that the "fiery serpents" that plague the Hebrews in the Old Testament represented dracunculiasis.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}}{{efn|group=note|This theory was criticised at the time, with The British Medical Journal{{'}}s book review pointing out differences in the disease's incubation time and fatality making it a poor match for the Book of Numbers description.{{cite journal|title=Reviews and notices – the diseases of the Bible |journal=The British Medical Journal |date=December 1887 |pages=1283–1284 |volume=2 |issue=1406|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.1406.1283}}{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}}}} In 1959, parasitologist Reinhard Hoeppli proposed that a prescription in the Ebers papyrus – a medical text written around 1500 BCE – referred to the removal of a Guinea worm, an identification endorsed ten years later by the physician and Egyptologist Paul Ghalioungui; this would make the Ebers papyrus the oldest known description of the disease.{{efn|group=note|Ghalioungui translates Ebers No. 875 thus:{{cite book|title=The Ebers Papyrus: a new English translation, commentaries, and glossaries |vauthors=Ghalioungui P |publisher=Academy of Scientific Research and Technology |location=Cairo |date=1987 |page=253 |oclc=25868848}} {{blockquote|text=If you examine a swelling ... on any body-part of man, you must apply thereon a bandage; and if you find it coming and going and clinging to the flesh which is under it ... You must perform a knife treatment, cutting it out with a ds-knife and that which is in its interior is seized with the hnw-instrument ... You must then extirpate it with the ds-knife ... It shall be seized with the hnwjt-part of any colocynch. A swelling that is like a head is to be treated likewise.}}}}{{sfn|Miller|1989|p=251}}

Carl Linnaeus included the Guinea worm in his 1758 edition of Systema Naturae, naming it Gordius medinensis.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} The name medinensis refers to the worm's longstanding association with the Arabian Peninsula city of Medina, with Avicenna writing in his The Canon of Medicine (published in 1025) "The disease is commonest at Medina, whence it takes its name".{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} In Johann Friedrich Gmelin's 1788 update of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, Gmelin renamed the worm Filaria medinensis, leaving Gordius for free-living worms.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} Henry Bastian authored the first detailed description of the worm itself, published in 1863.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}}{{cite journal |author=Bastian HC |title=On the structure and nature of the Dracunculus, or Guinea worm |journal=Transactions of the Linnean Society of London |date=November 1863 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1863.tb00155.x |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=101–134 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1447548 |access-date=13 June 2022 |archive-date=25 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125150236/https://zenodo.org/record/1447548 |url-status=live }} The following year, in his book Entozoa, Thomas Spencer Cobbold used the name Dracunculus medinensis, which was enshrined as the official name by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 1915.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=693–698}} Despite longstanding knowledge that the worm was associated with water, the lifecycle of D. medinensis was the topic of protracted debate.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=698–702}} Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko filled a major gap with his 1870 publication describing that D. medinensis larvae can infect and develop inside copepods.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=702–706}}{{cite journal |last1=Fedchenko |first1=Alexei |title=О строении и размножении ришты (Filaria medinensis L.) |journal=Известия Императорского Общества Любителей Естествознания, Антропологии и Этнографии [News of the Imperial Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography (Moscow)] |date=1870 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=71–82 |trans-title=On the structure and reproduction of the Guinea worm (Filaria medinensis L.) |language=ru}} English translation: {{cite journal |last1=Fedchenko |first1=AP |title=Concerning the structure and reproduction of the Guinea-worm (Filaria medinensis L.) |journal=American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |date=1971 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=511–523 |doi=10.4269/ajtmh.1971.20.511}}{{efn|group=note|Fedchenko suggested that this discovery was serendipitous based on his observations of many waterborne animals. However, Rudolf Leuckart claimed that he had advised Fedchenko to investigate Cyclops copepods due to the similarity between D. medinensis and the fish parasite Cucullanus elegans, the life cycle of which Leuckart had described in 1865.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=702–706}}}} The next step was shown by Robert Thomson Leiper, who described in a 1907 paper that monkeys fed D. medinensis–infected copepods developed mature Guinea worms, while monkeys directly fed D. medinensis larvae did not.{{sfn|Grove|1990|pp=702–706}}

In the 19th and 20th centuries, dracunculiasis was widespread across nearly all of Africa and South Asia, though no exact case counts exist from the pre-eradication era.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 4. "Epidemiology"}} In a 1947 article in the Journal of Parasitology, Norman R. Stoll used rough estimates of populations in endemic areas to suggest that there could have been as many as 48 million cases of dracunculiasis per year.{{cite journal|vauthors=Stoll NR |title=This wormy world |journal=Journal of Parasitology |volume=33 |issue = 1 |date=February 1947 |pages=1–18 |jstor=3273613|pmid=20284977 }}{{sfn|Biswas|Sankara|Agua-Agum|Maiga|2013|loc="Decision to Eradicate"}} In 1976, the WHO estimated the global burden at 10 million cases per year.{{sfn|Biswas|Sankara|Agua-Agum|Maiga|2013|loc="Decision to Eradicate"}} Ten years later, as the eradication effort was beginning, the WHO estimated 3.5 million cases per year worldwide.{{cite journal |url=https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/229765/WER7119_141-148.PDF |accessdate=2 June 2022 |title=Dracunculiasis – global surveillance summary, 1 |oclc=194592343 |publisher=World Health Organization |journal=Weekly Epidemiological Record |issue=19 |date=10 May 1996 |archive-date=3 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603002107/https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/229765/WER7119_141-148.PDF |url-status=live }}

{{main|Eradication of dracunculiasis}}

File:Dracunculiasis cases 1989 to 2022.tif

The campaign to eradicate dracunculiasis began at the urging of the CDC in 1980.{{sfn|Hopkins|Ruiz-Tiben|Eberhard|Weiss|2018|loc=Introduction}} Following smallpox eradication (last case in 1977; eradication certified in 1981), dracunculiasis was considered an achievable eradication target since it was preventable with only behavioral changes and less common than many similar diseases of poverty.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=69}} In 1981, the steering committee for the United Nations International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (a program to improve global drinking water from 1981 to 1990) adopted the goal of eradicating dracunculiasis as part of their efforts.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5. "Eradication Campaign"}} The following June, an international meeting termed "Workshop on Opportunities for Control of Dracunculiasis" concluded that dracunculiasis could be eradicated through public education, drinking water improvement, and larvicide treatments.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5. "Eradication Campaign"}} In response, India began its national eradication program in 1983.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5. "Eradication Campaign"}}

In 1986, the 39th World Health Assembly issued a statement endorsing dracunculiasis eradication and calling on member states to craft eradication plans.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=69}} The same year, the Carter Center began collaborating with the government of Pakistan to initiate its national program, which then launched in 1988.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5. "Eradication Campaign"}} By 1996, national eradication programs had been launched in nearly every country with endemic dracunculiasis: Ghana and Nigeria in 1989; Cameroon in 1991; Togo, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Uganda in 1992; Benin, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, and Côte d'Ivoire in 1993; Sudan, Kenya, Chad, and Ethiopia in 1994; Yemen and the Central African Republic in 1995.{{sfn|Hotez|2013|p=69}}{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Table 1}}

Each national eradication program had three phases. The first phase consisted of a nationwide search to identify the extent of dracunculiasis transmission and develop national and regional plans of action. The second phase involved the training and distribution of staff and volunteers to provide public education village-by-village, surveil for cases, and deliver water filters. This continued and evolved as needed until the national burden of disease was very low. Then, in a third phase, programs intensified surveillance efforts to identify each case within 24 hours of the worm emerging and preventing the person from contaminating drinking water supplies. Most national programs offered voluntary in-patient centers, where those affected could stay and receive food and care until their worms were removed.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5.7 "Strategy for Eradication"}}

In May 1991, the 44th World Health Assembly called for an international certification system to verify dracunculiasis transmission eradication country-by-country.{{sfn|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|2006|loc=Section 5. "Eradication Campaign"}} To this end, in 1995 the WHO established the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication (ICCDE).{{sfn|Biswas|Sankara|Agua-Agum|Maiga|2013|loc=Section "Certification of eradication"}} Once a country reports zero cases of dracunculiasis for a calendar year, the ICCDE considers that country to have interrupted Guinea worm transmission and entered the "precertification phase".{{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/groups/international-commission-for-the-certification-of-dracunculiasis-eradication/about |accessdate=5 September 2021 |title=International commission for the certification of dracunculiasis eradication – about us |publisher=World Health Organization |archive-date=5 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905214225/https://www.who.int/groups/international-commission-for-the-certification-of-dracunculiasis-eradication/about |url-status=live }} If the country reports zero cases in each of the next three calendar years, the ICCDE sends a team to the country to assess the country's disease surveillance systems and to verify the country's reports. The ICCDE can then formally recommend the WHO Director-General certify a country as free of dracunculiasis transmission.{{sfn|Biswas|Sankara|Agua-Agum|Maiga|2013|loc=Section "Certification of eradication"}}

Since the initiation of the global eradication program, the ICCDE has certified 16 of the original endemic countries as having eradicated dracunculiasis trasnmission: Pakistan in 1997; India in 2000; Senegal and Yemen in 2004; the Central African Republic and Cameroon in 2007; Benin, Mauritania, and Uganda in 2009; Burkina Faso and Togo in 2011; Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, and Nigeria in 2013; Ghana in 2015,{{cite web |url=https://apps.who.int/dracunculiasis/dradata/html/report_Countries_i1.html |accessdate=20 October 2021 |title=Year in which countries certified |publisher=World Health Organization |archive-date=21 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021041616/https://apps.who.int/dracunculiasis/dradata/html/report_Countries_i1.html |url-status=dead }} and Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2022.{{Cite web |title=The Democratic Republic of the Congo certified free of dracunculiasis by WHO |url=https://www.who.int/news/item/15-12-2022-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-certified-free-of-dracunculiasis-transmission-by-who |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217052304/https://www.who.int/news/item/15-12-2022-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-certified-free-of-dracunculiasis-transmission-by-who |archive-date=2022-12-17 |access-date=2022-12-15 |website=World Health Organization}} In 2020, the 76th World Health Assembly endorsed a new guidance plan, the Roadmap for Neglected Tropical Diseases 2021–2030, which sets a 2027 target for eradication of dracunculiasis, allowing certification by the end of 2030.{{sfn|Hopkins|Weiss|Torres-Velez|Sapp|2022|loc="Introduction"}}

In addition to humans, D. medinensis can infect domestic dogs and cats and wild olive baboons.{{sfn|Hopkins|Weiss|Torres-Velez|Sapp|2022|loc="Ethiopia"}} Infections of domestic dogs have been particularly common in Chad, where they helped reignite dracunculiasis transmission in 2010.{{sfn|Eberhard|Ruiz-Tiben|Hopkins|Farrell|2014|loc="Abstract"}} Animals are thought to become infected by eating a transport host, likely a fish or amphibian.{{sfn|Molyneux|Sankara|2017|loc=Paragraph 7}} As with humans, control efforts have focused on preventing infection by encouraging people in affected areas to bury fish entrails, as well as to identify and tie up dogs and cats with emerging worms so that they cannot access drinking water sources until after the worms have emerged.{{sfn|Molyneux|Sankara|2017|loc=Paragraph 7}} Animal infections have been rapidly falling, with 2,000 recorded infections in 2019, 1,601 in 2020, and 863 in 2021.{{sfn|Hopkins|Weiss|Roy|Yerian|2021|loc="Table 1"}}{{sfn|Hopkins|Weiss|Torres-Velez|Sapp|2022|loc="Current status of the campaign"}} Domestic ferrets can be infected with D. medinensis (and D. insignis) in laboratory settings, and have been used as an animal disease model for human dracunculiasis.{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc="Experimental infections of hosts with D. insignis"}}

Other Dracunculus species can infect snakes, turtles, and other reptiles. Animal infections are most widespread in snakes, with nine different species of Dracunculus described in snakes in the United States, Brazil, India, Vietnam, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Benin, Madagascar, and Italy.

{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc="Table 1"}}{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc="Dracunculus species of squamates"}} The only other reptiles affected are snapping turtles, with cases of infected common snapping turtles described in several US states and a single infected South American snapping turtle described in Costa Rica.{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc="Dracunculus species in chelonians"}} Infections of non-human mammals are limited to the Americas. Raccoons in the US and Canada are most widely affected, particularly by D. insignis; however, Dracunculus worms have also been reported in American skunks, coyotes, foxes, opossums, domestic dogs, domestic cats, and (rarely) muskrats and beavers.{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc="Natural infections of D. insignis in wildlife"}}{{sfn|Cleveland|Garrett|Cozad|Williams|2018|loc=""Dracunculus species in mammals"}}

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{notelist}}

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{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

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• {{cite journal|vauthors=Callahan K, Bolton B, Hopkins DR, Ruiz-Tiben E, Withers PC, Meagley K |title=Contributions of the Guinea Worm Disease eradication campaign toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals |date=30 May 2013 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0002160 |journal=PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases|volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=e2160 |pmid=23738022 |pmc=3667764 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |vauthors=Cleveland CA, Garrett KB, Cozad RA, Williams BM, Murray MH, Yabsley MJ |title=The wild world of Guinea Worms: A review of the genus Dracunculus in wildlife |journal=International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=289–300 |date=December 2018 |pmid=30094178 |pmc=6072916 |doi=10.1016/j.ijppaw.2018.07.002 |bibcode=2018IJPPW...7..289C }}
• {{cite book |vauthors=Despommier DD, Griffin DO, Gwadz RW, Hotez PJ, Knirsch CA |chapter=25. Dracunculus medinensis |title=Parasitic Diseases |edition=7 |publisher=Parasites Without Borders |date=2019 |url=https://parasiteswithoutborders.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PD7thEditionLowResVersion5-11-2019.pdf |access-date=26 January 2021 |pages=285–290 |archive-date=24 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124214329/https://parasiteswithoutborders.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PD7thEditionLowResVersion5-11-2019.pdf |url-status=live }}
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• {{cite journal |vauthors=Greenaway C |title=Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) |journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal |volume=170 |issue=4 |pages=495–500 |date=February 2004 |pmid=14970098 |pmc=332717 |doi= }}
• {{cite book |vauthors=Grove DI |title=A History of Human Helminthology |publisher=C.A.B International |date=1990 |url=http://www.users.on.net/%7Edavid.grove/BOOK.PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404043015/http://www.users.on.net/~david.grove/BOOK.PDF |archive-date=4 April 2015 |accessdate=13 March 2022 |url-status=live }}
• {{cite journal |vauthors=Hopkins DR, Ruiz-Tiben E, Eberhard ML, Weiss A, Withers PC, Roy SL, Sienko DG |title=Dracunculiasis eradication: are we there yet? |journal=American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |volume=99 |issue=2 |pages=388–395 |date=August 2018 |pmid=29869608 |pmc=6090361 |doi=10.4269/ajtmh.18-0204 }}
• {{cite journal |vauthors=Hopkins DR, Weiss AJ, Roy SL, Yerian S, Cama VA |title=Progress toward global eradication of dracunculiasis, January 2020–June 2021 |journal=Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report |volume=70 |issue=44 |pages=1527–1533 |date=November 2021 |pmid=34735420 |pmc=8568094 |doi=10.15585/mmwr.mm7044a1 |url=}}
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• {{cite journal |vauthors=Molyneux D, Sankara DP |title=Guinea worm eradication: Progress and challenges— should we beware of the dog? |journal=PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=e0005495 |date=April 2017 |pmid=28426663 |pmc=5398503 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0005495 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |vauthors=Ruiz-Tiben E, Hopkins DR |title=Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) eradication |journal=Advances in Parasitology |volume=61 |issue= |pages=275–309 |date=2006 |pmid=16735167 |doi=10.1016/S0065-308X(05)61007-X |isbn=9780120317615 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065308X0561007X |url-access=subscription}}
• {{cite book|veditors=Spector JM, Gibson TE |chapter=Dracunculiasis |title=Atlas of Pediatrics in the Tropics and Resource-Limited Settings |pages=109–115 |edition=2 |publisher=American Academy of Pediatrics |isbn=978-1-58110-960-3 |date=2016}}
• {{cite report |publisher=World Health Organization |title=Dracunculiasis eradication: global surveillance summary, 2021 |date=27 May 2022 |url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-wer9721-22-225-247 |accessdate=29 July 2022 |ref={{harvid|WHO|2022}} |archive-date=29 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729201051/https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-wer9721-22-225-247 |url-status=live }}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dracunculiasis-(guinea-worm-disease) Dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease)] fact sheet published by the World Health Organization
• [http://www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/index.html Guinea Worm Disease Eradication Program]—Carter Center
• [https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/1247467891260/anyak-vs-the-guinea-worm.html Anyak vs. the Guinea Worm]—Nicholas D. Kristof from The New York Times follows a young Sudanese boy with a Guinea worm parasite infection who is quarantined for treatment as part of the Carter Center program

{{Medical condition classification and resources

|DiseasesDB = 3945

|ICD11 = {{ICD10|1F64}}

|ICD10 = {{ICD10|B|72||b|65}}

|ICD9 = {{ICD9|125.7}}

|ICDO =

|OMIM =

|MedlinePlus =

|eMedicineSubj = ped

|eMedicineTopic = 616

|MeSH = D004320

|Orphanet=231

}}

{{Helminthiases}}

{{Diseases of poverty}}

{{Eradication of infectious disease}}

Category:Helminthiases

Category:Infectious diseases with eradication efforts

Category:Rare infectious diseases

Category:Tropical diseases

Category:Waterborne diseases

Category:Zoonoses