Countdown to wipe out guinea-worm disease in Ghana

Melanie Lofgren
9/18/09
3:52

The only disease to be completely eradicated by human effort is smallpox in 1979 but guinea worm disease is not far away. Africa is the only continent where this disease is still an endemic including these six countries: Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, and the last probably country to cut transmission, Sudan. This disease is spread by drinking water that is contaminated with water fleas which are also contaminated with the dracunculus larvae. When these fleas enter the human body, they develop into eggs which then release the worms. The worms then try to escape through the skin, usually in the feet. Those who enter water with open sores can also contaminate the water. Amamata Sumani, district director of health services for Central Gonja (in the Northern Region), is working on bringing about change in Ghana. Sumani and her team have been educating those of the disease, calling on chiefs to impose sanctions, filtering the waters and asking the people to stay out of reservoirs. This can be difficult when some natives believe that the worm is brought about by the gods or witchcraft. Joseph Yakubu, a teacher and volunteer for the past 15 years for the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Programme, is working on overcoming this obstacle. The only ones who are still not listening are the young boys who wander from their homes into the ponds to swim. Despite this, Ghana has seen a decrease in the number of guinea worm cases. There is an 85% reduction rate in cases from 3,358 in 2007 to 501 in 2008. “This is the biggest percentage reduction in cases for a one-year period in any country with over 1000 cases since the programme started,” says Andrew Seidu Korkor, national programme manager from the Carter Center (an international nongovernment organization started by President Jimmy Carter and wife in 1982) which focuses on the eradication of guinea worm disease.


I find it interesting that one of the biggest obstacles in treating this disease was to change the people and their beliefs. Some of the natives in this area where the disease is present always believed that it was a curse from the gods or witchcraft brought on from an enemy. Now they’re being told that it is because of their water. But it is good to hear that the people are being educated of this disease and they are learning from it as the decrease in the number of cases exemplify. Hopefully one day this disease will also be under the list of eradicated diseases by human effort (which was actually one of Sumani’s goals for 2009 but has now been pushed back further).


http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/9/09-010909/en/index.html