Fighting Disease: Benin
Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease
Current Status: Transmission stopped, March 2004 (read the announcement)
Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication: Pending
For the most current Guinea worm case reports, read the Guinea Worm Wrap-Up newsletter >
Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease ,is a preventable parasitic infection contracted when a person ingests drinking water from stagnant sources containing copepods (commonly referred to as water fleas) that harbor infective Guinea worm larvae. Inside a person's body, the larvae grow for a year, becoming thin threadlike worms up to 1 meter long. These worms create agonizingly painful blisters in the skin through which they slowly exit the body, preventing the victim from attending school, caring for children, or harvesting crops. Learn more about the historic Carter Center-led campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease >
In 1993, with assistance from The Carter Center, the Benin Ministry of Health established a national program to eradicate Guinea worm disease. That year, Benin reported approximately 14,000 cases of Guinea worm. By 2004, the incidence of this painful and debilitating disease had been reduced by more than 99 percent, and only three indigenous cases were reported.
Guinea worm prevention approaches introduced to Beninese communities included: health education; distribution of nylon filters to sieve out tiny water fleas carrying infective larvae; safe, monthly ABATE® larvicide treatments (donated by BASF Corporation) of stagnant ponds; direct advocacy with water organizations; and increased efforts to build safer hand-dug wells.
Village volunteers, who were trained, supplied, and supervised by the program, carried out daily surveillance and interventions. Benin greatly improved its Guinea worm surveillance by fully implementing strategies to contain cases within 24 hours of case detection. To help educate the public and raise awareness about Guinea worm, The Carter Center facilitated the recording of Guinea worm radio public service announcements in French, the official language of Benin.
In communities throughout the country, women and mothers were enlisted in the fight against Guinea worm disease. Women have a daily presence in the community, as they are directly responsible for obtaining water for household use. They took great care to note if people with Guinea worm disease were entering water sources to bathe or collect water, so they were able to quickly spot and report an outbreak.
Beginning in March 2001, the program recruited three women with university training to assist with eradication efforts. Each woman was assigned to monitor outbreaks in one of three highly endemic regions: Mono, Zou, and Collines. These women, called social assistants, were the first of a future network of women in Benin's most endemic communities. Each social assistant began by training other women to search for cases of Guinea worm, log cases in the village register, and apply bandages to wounds caused by the disease.
The women also were taught how to inspect and distribute water filters, demonstrate correct use and care of filters, verify that ponds were treated monthly with ABATE, and encourage use of potable water, when available. Making rounds twice a month, the women visited at least 25 households each. Female leaders in the community recommended and selected other women for Guinea worm training.
With support from her fellow villagers in Tchetti, a social assistant rallied against a negligent village volunteer when he refused to report an outbreak of Guinea worm disease because he did not want to be embarrassed. The women went to the local radio station, which routinely aired messages about preventing Guinea worm disease, announced the outbreak, and denounced the irresponsible behavior of the village volunteer. Her intervention allowed the eradication program to take action immediately to contain the outbreak.
Combined with the efforts of other program partners, these dedicated women played a vital role in stopping the transmission of Guinea worm disease in Benin.
Between 2003 and 2004, the national program reported a 90 percent decrease in recorded cases of Guinea worm. In April of 2005, Benin officially reported 13 consecutive months of zero indigenous cases, demonstrating that transmission of the disease has been stopped.
Through these efforts, the suffering caused by this debilitating disease has been averted. Families, communities, and even Benin's national economy will benefit from more people returning to work and more children able to attend school.
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