Effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease enters ‘last mile’

A Guinea worm, a parasite that can grow up to a metre long, emerges from the leg of a South Sudanese girl [File: Skye Wheeler/Reuters]

Only 13 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide last year, according to the Carter Center in the United States.

After decades of progress, Adam Weiss, director of The Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, cautioned the end phase of the global effort to eradicate the parasitic disease will be “the most difficult”.