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DRACUNCULIASIS ERADICATION – GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE SUMMARY, 2013

Friday, 16th of May 2014

DRACUNCULIASIS ERADICATION – GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE SUMMARY, 2013

 

Full text is at http://www.who.int/wer/2014/wer8919.pdf?ua=1

 

From the Editorial Note:

 

The year 2013 was the most successful year in terms of the greatest overall decline in the number of cases compared with the previous year, driven mainly by the 78%

decline achieved by the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Programme.

 

However, this achievement was made in the face of new challenges. The conflict erupting in South Sudan in mid-December, although sparing much of the region where most of the cases were detected, may jeopardize the achievement if access to the areas facing insecurity continues to be difficult. Improvement in the security situation in Mali provided an opportunity to reinitiate interventions in Gao and Mopti, but regular access to Kidal continues to be problematic. The role of humanitarian agencies working in such areas could be of immense value in opening up windows of opportunity and providing access to allow implementation of the programme interventions. The unusually larger number of dogs infected with dracunculiasis in Chad, a phenomenon noted for the first time in contrast to the few infections in animals previously observed, requires innovative approaches in both surveillance and interventions to prevent further transmission.

 

To meet the goal of interrupting transmission by 2015, as targeted in the WHO roadmap for Neglected Tropical Diseases, national programmes need to make concerted efforts to interrupt transmission within the next 2 transmission cycles. This is achievable, as noted by the members of the ICCDE in December 2013.