Progress toward global dracunculiasis eradication, June 2000

In 1986, an estimated 3 million persons were infected with dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) and another 120 million were at risk for infection. That year and in 1991, the World Health Assembly called for the eradication of dracunculiasis, and as a result of the implementation of the Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (DEP), the annual incidence was reduced by approximately 95% by 1995. This report updates the status of the eradication program as of June 2000, which indicates that dracunculiasis has been eliminated from seven of 20 countries where it was endemic in 1995; however, in parts of Africa, particularly Sudan, dracunculiasis remains a serious public health problem.