Global eradication of Guinea worm.

[dracunculiasis]

Little more than a decade ago , it was estimated that over three million cases of dracunculiasis occurred worldwide . Since then , the numbers have fallen dramatically , thanks to the water supply initiatives of the 1980 s and , more recently , the national guinea worm eradication programmes implemented in a score of endemic countries . Hervé Periès and Sandy Cairncross discuss how eradication will require the containment of cases in the remaining endemic areas , together with the simultaneous strengthening of surveillance to permit the certification of eradication . This aim requires existing strategies to be adapted to maintain their efficacy and also to improve their sustainability and cost-effectiveness . Sudan with its civil war , and more than a hundred thousand reported cases , remains a major obstacle to rapid achievement of the goal .