
Breaking the life cycle of the parasitic worm that causes river blindness - Mz
http://kios.org/post/how-worm-warriors-are-beating-unbeatable-worm#stream/0
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vanderZwan
The linked article about the Guinea worm[0] explains that the drive to
eliminate the disease has hit a snag

> _A massive campaign, led by President Jimmy Carter, has eradicated the worm
> from all but four countries. And this year, there have been only seven
> cases, the Carter Center reports._

> _But a surprising wrinkle has cropped up: The worm has found a new way to
> hide and thrive. Back in 2013, something strange started happening in Chad:
> Dogs were showing up with Guinea worm emerging from their legs. Many dogs.
> With many, many Guinea worms._

> _This year there have been more than 600 hundred dogs infected with Guinea,
> scattered across a large part of Chad, which is nearly twice the size of
> Texas._

This is sad, I thought we were really close to getting rid of the disease. But
at least it seems we're still making good progress.

I really do hope we'll manage to eliminate a few more of these horrible
diseases in the coming century. We're almost there with polio, although it
apparently has some setbacks as well[1], so I'm sceptical that the 2025 target
for river-blindness will be met. But even if it's not yet completely
eliminated by then, the reduction of infected cases alone will be worth it.

[0]
[http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/09/48933080...](http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/09/489330803/why-
the-world-isn-t-close-to-eradicating-guinea-worm)

[1] [http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/a-wild-
pol...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/a-wild-polio-
outbreak-in-nigeria/495512/)

