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Data update—Eradication of Diseases

August 4

How close is the world to eradicating guinea worm disease?

Guinea worm disease, also known as “dracunculiasis”, is a painful and debilitating parasitic infection. The guinea worm’s larvae can invade a person’s stomach and intestines when they drink contaminated water, such as from a stagnant pond.

The larvae mature into adult worms, often a meter long, which crawl through tissues and joints. This can cause severe arthritic conditions or permanent disability. About a year later, the worm emerges through a painful skin blister, risking secondary infections.

The disease was previously endemic in over 20 countries in South Asia and Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 900,000 cases were recorded worldwide in 1989. You can see this in the chart.

Unfortunately, there are no vaccines against guinea worm disease. But prevention is possible through clean water access, insecticides, and active case monitoring.

An international eradication campaign using these preventative measures has drastically reduced the number of guinea worm disease cases globally. By 2025, only 10 were reported, the lowest number on record.

Full eradication is within reach, and tracking progress is key to achieving that. The WHO tracks this and publishes the “Dracunculiasis eradication: global surveillance summary” once a year. I recently updated our charts with the latest data from the WHO.

Explore all of the updated data in our interactive charts
Line chart of reported annual global cases of guinea worm disease on a logarithmic axis, where cases peaked in the early 1990s and then declined steeply to near elimination by 2026. Source: World Health Organization (2026). License: CC BY.
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