Ghana conquers worm after 23-year fight

July 29, 2011|Associated Press

ACCRA, Ghana - Jimmy Carter watched in horror as the inches-long worm emerged from the breast of a woman in remote northern Ghana. That was in the 1980s. The former US president vowed to see the sickness eradicated and estimated it would take 10 years.

Yesterday, after 23 years of hard work on clean, safe drinling water systems, Ghana finally declared victory.

“Ghana’s triumph over Guinea worm disease serves as a reminder to the world and the remaining endemic countries that the greatest challenges can be overcome with hard work, political commitment, and the support of the international community,’’ Carter, 86, said in a statement from the Carter Center in Atlanta.

At a celebration in Ghana’s northern Tamale city, Vice President John Mahama announced that for 14 months, the West African nation has had no new indigenous cases and the cycle of Guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis, is broken.

Ghana had 180,000 cases in 1989. By 2005, it had only a few hundred, but more than 1,000 cases turned up in 2007, requiring a redoubling of efforts that has now paid off.

The remedy? Water filters are distributed, a mild pesticide kills the carrier in water holes, and villagers are counseled to stay out of infected water.

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