Fighting Disease:  Mauritania

Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease

Current Status: Transmission stopped, June 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 >

When Mauritania established a national Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1995, five regions were endemic: Assaba, Gorgol, Guidimaka, Brakna, and Tagant. Within these areas, 122 villages were endemic, reporting a national total of 1,240 cases. By the following year, with hard work from the endemic villages, only three regions remained endemic to Guinea worm disease: Assaba, Gorgol, and Guidimaka.

To help traverse the deserts and reach isolated and remote areas, camels, horses, and donkeys were used to implement monthly supervision of training and case reporting. In 1996, the government of Japan agreed to provide 200 wells in the endemic areas of the country. Mauritania's hard work paid off as the country reported its last indigenous case in June 2004 and went 12 consecutive months with zero cases, thus stopping disease transmission.

Mauritania's success at stopping Guinea worm inspires other nations struggling with the disease as well as the Mauritanian people.

Learn more about the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program in Mauritania (in search result format) >