Guinea Worm Eradication

• The Guinea Worm Eradication programme is an example of a grass-roots strategy for disease eradication.
• In Ghana, the Guinea Worm Eradication programme partnered with Red with the Ghana Red Cross women’s clubs to reduce transmissions.
• The programme teaches women volunteers how it is transmitted and prevention methods.

  The women go on to visit villages and educate local communities.
• Responsibilities of the volunteers

  Monitoring, identifying and reporting all new cases of Guinea Worm.

  Ensuring that those infected do not contaminate the water supply.

  Distributing, checking and replacing water filters that remove water fleas from drinking water.

  Identifying water sources used by the community and requiring treatment with larvicides.
• Larvicides are used to kill larvae of insects that can cause disease.
• 1 Entering the body


  Person drinks water containing water fleas that are infected with Guinea larvae.
• 2 Multiplying


  The fleas are digested, releasing the larvae into abdominal tissues, where they mate.
• 3 Growing

  Female worms, growing up to 1 metre long, move through the body, mostly to lower limbs.
• 4 Leaving the body


  About a year later, the worm emerges from a blister on their limb. The victim cools the limb in water.
• 5 Infesting the water

  On contact with water, the worm releases clouds of larvae.
• 6 Infecting water fleas

  Water fleas consume the worm larvae, and the cycle starts again.
• The Guinea worm has now been eradicated from Ghana.
• In 1989, there were 180000 cases, but by 2010 the country reported its last indigenous case of the disease.