Guinea worm on track to be 2nd eradicated human disease; only 10 cases in 2025

277 points · bookofjoe · 13 hours ago

arstechnica.com

JohnMunsch1 hour ago
Hey, let's not be defeatist. Give RFK Jr. a shot at it and we can bring it roaring back.
fanatic2pope12 hours ago
Thanks, Carter!
https://www.cartercenter.org/programs/guinea-worm/
AngryData6 hours ago
This is amazing, those things are an absolutely nasty parasite from out of a sci-fi horror movie. If you drink contaminated water with them it releases its larva into your body which burrow out of your digestive systems into your body consuming your nutrients for a year or more as it grows, then migrates towards your legs and creates debilitatingly painful blisters trying to force its way out over the course of weeks, and when you submerge the wound in water to relieve the burning pain it releases its larva into the water to infect others. Also don't try to pull it out even when its halfway out of your body or it will snap and die and give you a super nasty infection as it decays inside of you.
MPSimmons13 hours ago
I was going to say, "finally something that ivermectin can help with!" except https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7974686/
jswiss042410 hours ago
I worked for the Carter Center in South Sudan for a little less than a year in 2011. It was an extraordinarily tough job and required perseverance, humility, creative problem solving, negotiation, and acceptance. Events outside our control, like civil war, made eradication even harder.
The Carter Center teams should be very proud of what they accomplished. It would’ve been nice to get it done before Jimmy passed though
palmotea12 hours ago
The free market could never accomplish something like this.
I_dream_of_Geni3 hours ago
Honest question here: how is a worm (parasite) considered a "disease"? I Googled this question two different ways and got two different responses.
basilikum6 hours ago
Eradication of the Guinea worm will be one of the huge milestones in the history of humankind. Just reading about them is nightmarish. In 1986 estimated 3,500,000 people had an infestation. Now we're well below 100. However eradication also needs animal cases to go to zero which are still in the hundreds.
Anyway, really great news about humanity beating one of its many terrible enemies just like the Malaria vaccine.
poulpy12313 hours ago
The decrease from 3.5 million cases to only 15 is impressive but I don't see how we can eradicate zoonoses
lysace9 hours ago
The eradication program works by offering cash rewards for reporting cases in areas where the worm is present. Those reports are then investigated and followed to prevent transmission and identify the source.
Clever. I wonder if the same model can be reused for other diseases.
An example:
https://www.who.int/news/item/11-04-2014-south-sudan-introdu...
Any individual presenting with the disease who meets all the criteria for containment is now rewarded with 500 South Sudanese pounds (SSP). The informer is given 100 SSP.
cubefox13 hours ago
Sounds like there is still some way to go:
> To fully eradicate the disease, cases in animals (infected by the same species of worm) must also be wiped out. In 2025, animal cases were detected in Chad (147 cases), Mali (17), Cameroon (445), Angola (70), Ethiopia (1), and South Sudan (3).
31337Logic10 hours ago
Take THAT, God! ;-)
giantfrog10 hours ago
RFK Jr: “Not so fast”
hulitu10 hours ago
> only 10 cases in 2025
10 _known_ cases
atdt12 hours ago
Please share this with someone who doesn't know the story yet. Ingenuity alone can't save our species. We also need the will to do good. We are living through a moment of deep cynicism about our ability to solve existential problems. Let this be a reminder of what we are capable of.

Loading comments...

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46886191

JohnMunsch1 hour ago
Hey, let's not be defeatist. Give RFK Jr. a shot at it and we can bring it roaring back.
fanatic2pope12 hours ago
Thanks, Carter!
https://www.cartercenter.org/programs/guinea-worm/
AngryData6 hours ago
This is amazing, those things are an absolutely nasty parasite from out of a sci-fi horror movie. If you drink contaminated water with them it releases its larva into your body which burrow out of your digestive systems into your body consuming your nutrients for a year or more as it grows, then migrates towards your legs and creates debilitatingly painful blisters trying to force its way out over the course of weeks, and when you submerge the wound in water to relieve the burning pain it releases its larva into the water to infect others. Also don't try to pull it out even when its halfway out of your body or it will snap and die and give you a super nasty infection as it decays inside of you.
MPSimmons13 hours ago
I was going to say, "finally something that ivermectin can help with!" except https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7974686/
jswiss042410 hours ago
I worked for the Carter Center in South Sudan for a little less than a year in 2011. It was an extraordinarily tough job and required perseverance, humility, creative problem solving, negotiation, and acceptance. Events outside our control, like civil war, made eradication even harder.
The Carter Center teams should be very proud of what they accomplished. It would’ve been nice to get it done before Jimmy passed though
palmotea12 hours ago
The free market could never accomplish something like this.
I_dream_of_Geni3 hours ago
Honest question here: how is a worm (parasite) considered a "disease"? I Googled this question two different ways and got two different responses.
basilikum6 hours ago
Eradication of the Guinea worm will be one of the huge milestones in the history of humankind. Just reading about them is nightmarish. In 1986 estimated 3,500,000 people had an infestation. Now we're well below 100. However eradication also needs animal cases to go to zero which are still in the hundreds.
Anyway, really great news about humanity beating one of its many terrible enemies just like the Malaria vaccine.
poulpy12313 hours ago
The decrease from 3.5 million cases to only 15 is impressive but I don't see how we can eradicate zoonoses
lysace9 hours ago
The eradication program works by offering cash rewards for reporting cases in areas where the worm is present. Those reports are then investigated and followed to prevent transmission and identify the source.
Clever. I wonder if the same model can be reused for other diseases.
An example:
https://www.who.int/news/item/11-04-2014-south-sudan-introdu...
Any individual presenting with the disease who meets all the criteria for containment is now rewarded with 500 South Sudanese pounds (SSP). The informer is given 100 SSP.
cubefox13 hours ago
Sounds like there is still some way to go:
> To fully eradicate the disease, cases in animals (infected by the same species of worm) must also be wiped out. In 2025, animal cases were detected in Chad (147 cases), Mali (17), Cameroon (445), Angola (70), Ethiopia (1), and South Sudan (3).
31337Logic10 hours ago
Take THAT, God! ;-)
giantfrog10 hours ago
RFK Jr: “Not so fast”
hulitu10 hours ago
> only 10 cases in 2025
10 _known_ cases
atdt12 hours ago
Please share this with someone who doesn't know the story yet. Ingenuity alone can't save our species. We also need the will to do good. We are living through a moment of deep cynicism about our ability to solve existential problems. Let this be a reminder of what we are capable of.