Burkina Faso

Current status: Transmission stopped, November 2006 
Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication: 2011 

 In 1992, the Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program began working with the Burkina Faso government and other international organizations to eliminate Guinea worm disease from the more than 600 endemic communities in the country.

The major challenges included:

• The poor road conditions during rainy season, also peak transmission season, making certain villages inaccessible
• The need to provide safe water to certain populations
• The mobilization of communities to contain and report cases of the disease
• Imported cases from other countries, including Mali, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire

Our Work and Methods

To prevent and eradicate Guinea worm disease in Burkinabe communities, our program:

• Promoted health education
• Distributed nylon filters to strain out copepods hosting the larvae
• Completed monthly ABATE® larvicide (donated by BASF Corp.) treatments of stagnant ponds
• Advocated with water organizations 
• Increased efforts to build safer hand-dug wells
• Trained, supplied, and supervised village volunteers, empowering them to carry out monthly surveillance and interventions

Impacts

Despite the obstacles, we helped eradicate Guinea worm disease in Burkina Faso. The last case was reported in November 2006, and the World Health Organization certified the country free of the disease in 2011. 

Working hand in hand with Burkina Faso’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture, The Carter Center, in partnership with the Sasakawa Africa Association, assisted farmers with agricultural production starting in 1997. The program was part of a larger partnership led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug that helped over 8 million small-scale sub-Saharan African farmers in countries where malnutrition is a constant threat.    

Our Work and Methods   

The program provided farmers with credit for fertilizers and enhanced seeds to grow test plots, often yielding 200% to 400% more crops. Participating farmers went on to teach others, creating a ripple effect to stimulate self-sufficiency.  

The program ended in 2005.