Fighting Disease: Nigeria
Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease
Current Status:Transmission stopped, November 2008 (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 >
Since 1988, the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program has worked with the Nigeria Ministry of Health to spare thousands of people from suffering from this devastating disease.
In 1988-89, Nigeria was the most Guinea-worm-endemic country in the world, reporting more than 650,000 cases in 36 states.
In the mid-1990s, Guinea worm infections in part of the heavily populated region of southeast Nigeria caused an estimated USD $20 million in lost income to rice farmers alone.
In collaboration with Nigeria's Ministry of Health, the strategy for elimination consisted of several components, driven by health education. The goal was to change behavior and mobilize communities to improve the safety of their local water sources.
Approaches introduced to communities included: health education and nylon filter distribution; treating stagnant ponds monthly with safe ABATE® larvicide (donated by BASF Corporation); direct advocacy with water organizations; and increased efforts to build safer hand-dug wells. The program also trained and supervised village volunteers to carry out monthly surveillance and interventions.
In addition to these sweeping efforts, other activities to stamp out Guinea worm were initiated. For example, in 2000, Nigeria held a national symposium on Guinea worm eradication in Abuja with the theme "Guinea Worm Eradication: Let's End It Now!" In an address read on his behalf by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, Vice President Atiku Abubakar announced that the head of state had released more than 5 billion naira – approximately USD $50 million – for safe water to rural communities and that Guinea-worm-endemic villages would be given priority attention. He highlighted the impoverishing nature of the disease – hence the Kanuri term for Guinea worm disease, Ngudi, "the impoverisher."
By November 2008, incidence of the disease had been reduced by more than 99 percent, with 38 indigenous cases reported and all cases were contained. In November 2009, with 12 consecutive months of zero cases, Nigeria was determined to have once and for all broken Guinea worm transmission.
Nigeria's success at eliminating Guinea worm inspires other nations struggling with the disease as well as the Nigerian people.
Read the feature: Guinea Worm Disease: Nigeria's Last Case >
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