The End Of Guinea Worm Was Just Around the Corner. Not Anymore
The World Health Organization had hoped to eradicate the painful parasite by 2020. That deadline just got moved a decade into the future. And dogs are part of the problem.
Next year was supposed to be the end of the line for Guinea worm.
The epic, decades-long campaign against the parasite — which humans and animals can contract from drinking water and which, about a year later, emerges as a worm up to 3 feet long from painful lesions on the feet or legs — has been one of the big success stories in modern global health. In the 1980s, more than 3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia contracted Guinea worm annually. Last year,.
