Guinea Worm Countdown: The Road to Eradication
Nov. 23, 2009

These bimonthly reports highlight the historic progress being made toward the eradication of Guinea worm disease.

Current Indigenous Cases of Guinea Worm Disease
Reported January to October 2009  

 3,082 (provisional)*

31 percent decrease from Jan. - Oct. 2008 (4,460)

The final total number of Guinea worm cases reported for all of 2008 was 4,619, a 51 percent reduction over 2007 (9,585).  In 2008, one case imported from Ghana was reported by Burkina Faso.  The remaining 4,618 cases were reported from Sudan, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Niger.  Nigeria and Niger have since stopped transmission and  final case totals for 2009—estimated at fewer than 3,500—will be confirmed in 2010.

When The Carter Center began leading the campaign to eradicate Guinea worm in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of the disease in 20 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, cases have been reduced by more than 99 percent, making Guinea worm poised to be the next disease after smallpox to be eradicated.

*Excludes four cases imported from one country to another