The Global Health Observatory

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Global Health Observatory
WHO/Liba Taylor
  • Dracunculiasis is a crippling parasitic disease on the verge of eradication, with 10 human cases reported in 2025, 15 in 2024, 14 in 2023, and 13 in 2022.
  • From the time infection occurs, it takes between 10–14 months for the transmission cycle to complete until a mature worm emerges from the body.
  • The parasite is transmitted mostly when people drink stagnant water contaminated with parasite-infected water fleas.
  • Dracunculiasis was endemic in 20 countries in the mid-1980s.
  • In 2025, 3 countries reported a total of 10 human cases of dracunculiasis: 4 cases in 4 villages in Chad, 4 cases in 4 villages in Ethiopia and 2 cases in 2 villages in South Sudan. This total is an historic low: the global incidence is now less than 0.0003% of that estimated when the Guinea-Worm Eradication Programme was launched in 1986. In 2024, 15 cases were reported in 2 countries: 9 cases in 8 villages of Chad and 6 cases in 4 villages of South Sudan.
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