One human case in six months, and 550 infected animals

Dracunculiasis — Guinea worm disease — is closer to eradication than
almost any other human disease. **Between 1986 and 2023, human cases fell by
more than 99%, from an estimated 3.5 million to 14 worldwide.**

Where it stands

As of June 2025, indigenous transmission was occurring in six countries:
Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and South Sudan.

Read those two rows together and the shape of the remaining problem is
obvious. One human case. Five hundred and fifty animal infections.

Why the animals changed everything

**Since 2012, transmission of dracunculiasis in dogs has complicated
eradication efforts.**

Guinea worm eradication was built on a simple premise: the parasite needs a
human host, so stop people drinking contaminated water and the life cycle
breaks. Filtered water, case containment, and the worm has nowhere to go.

A dog reservoir removes that guarantee. The parasite can persist in a village
with no human cases at all, waiting, and a programme can reduce human
infections to nearly zero without being any closer to finishing.

The other obstacle

**Public health personnel's impeded access to the population, due to civil
unrest and insecurity in Mali, South Sudan and Sudan**, is named alongside the
animal infections as the most important remaining challenge.

That is the final-mile problem for every eradication campaign. The last cases
of a disease are, almost by definition, in the places hardest to reach — and
a programme that has eliminated 99.999% of a disease can still be stopped by
not being able to get to a village.

*Source: Hopkins DR, Weiss AJ, Yerian S, et al. Progress Toward Eradication of
Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) — Worldwide, January 2024–June 2025.
MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.*