Guinea worm cases drop to 14 – close to Jimmy Carter’s goal of 0 - Al Jazeera English

The former president began fighting the disease in 1986 when it affected 3.5 million of the world's most vulnerable people.

Guinea worm infections dropped to just more than a dozen worldwide last year, getting closer to fulfilling former President Jimmy Carter's dream of completely eradicating the disease during his lifetime.

The Carter Center reported on Wednesday that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. People who drink unclean water can ingest parasites that can grow a metre (three feet) long before painfully emerging from the skin.

The Atlanta-based centre founded by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, said the remaining infections occurred in just four countries in sub-Saharan Africa; Chad, Sudan, Angola, and Cameroon.

That is a decline of nearly half compared with the previous year, when 27 cases were reported in seven African countries. And it is a staggering drop from when The Carter Center began leading the global eradication effort in 1986, when the parasitic disease infected 3.5 million people. Carter, 97, has made eradicating the disease one of his many missions.

"To say that we only have 14 human beings on a planet of almost eight billion people is quite a phenomenal track record for the Guinea worm program," Adam Weiss, director of The Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program, told The Associated Press.

Guinea worm infections in animals, such as dogs and cats, also declined 45 percent last year compared with 2020. That is important, Weiss said, because infected pets and domesticated animals can play a role in passing the disease to people.

Guinea worm affects some of the world's more vulnerable people and can be prevented by training people to filter and drink clean water.

The metre-long worm incubates in people for up to a year before painfully emerging, often through the feet or other sensitive parts of the body.

Guinea worm is not fatal by itself. But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is a painful and debilitating disease that can leave infected people unable to work until an emerging worm is removed – a slow process that can take weeks.

The Carter Center was able to maintain its battle against the parasite despite temporary interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Weiss said.

"We did … have a few interruptions to oversight, but after outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred or insecurity situations emerged, teams were able to re-access areas and verify that community members were still conducting surveillance and that all of the reports were in fact verified," he said.

Only one human disease has ever been successfully eradicated: smallpox.

The World Health Organization warns that the remaining cases can be the most difficult to control as they usually occur in remote and often inaccessible areas.