Surveillance: the foundation for control and elimination of dracunculiasis in Africa

The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990) has stimulated a movement to eradicate human infection with the helminthic parasite Dracunculus medinensis (dracunculiasis), whose victims are disabled for weeks or months during the painful emergence of one or more worms from beneath the skin. Each year, millions of people acquire this infection by drinking unclean water. Among the critical activities that are necessary for the elimination of dracunculiasis, one of the most fundamental is that of epidemiological surveillance. Surveillance activities play a key role in the strategy to target affected villages for improved water supplies and other control activities. Accurate surveillance data also stimulate interest and support for national eradication programmes. Dracunculiasis is a condition with excellent characteristics for reporting through passive surveillance systems. However, active surveillance, as well as other innovative surveillance strategies, should be used to establish baseline information in those villages where cases occur, and later to monitor epidemiologically important indices needed to evaluate the progress of elimination efforts.