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WHO/Liba Taylor
  • Dracunculiasis is a crippling parasitic disease on the verge of eradication, with 15 human cases reported 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 2024, a total of 15 human cases of dracunculiasis were reported globally; these were detected in Chad (9 cases from eight villages) and South Sudan (6 cases from four villages). In 2023, human cases were reported from only 11 villages in five countries: Chad (9 cases), Mali (1 case), South Sudan (2 cases), and one case each from Cameroon and Central African Republic, which are both certified countries – in both instances, cases were linked to movements of population across the borders with Chad.
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