Guinea worm wrap-up

80% fewer cases in January-August 2015As of mid-September, the provisional total number of cases of Guinea worm disease reported globally in January-August 2015 was only 15, which is an 80% reduction from the 75 cases that were reported during the same eight months of 2014 (Figure 1). This dramatic reduction is led by South Sudan, which slashed its cases by 95% in that period. Although South Sudan had most of its cases last year in July and August (43 of 70 total cases), Mali, which had the second- highest total cases in 2014 (40), had its peak number of cases (39) in September-November (Table 1). The low overall containment rate (36%) so far this year is mainly because neither the 8 cases in Chad nor the single case in Mali were contained; South Sudan contained 2 of its 4 cases and Ethiopia contained both of its cases