It doesn’t seem possible that the parasite could be entirely eradicated everywhere in a few years. Over the past few years, there was a major push in South Sudan to rid the country of Guinea worm, lead by the South Sudan government alongside the Carter Center. The Carter Center is a non-profit organization founded by former US president Jimmy Carter. The Carter Center recently announced that South Sudan has gone over 15 months without a case of Guinea worm being reported. Guinea worm, scientifically known as Dracunculiasis medinensis, is a parasite which transmits itself through the water. Drinking infected water is the primary method by which people get the parasite. Water sources may have copepods, or “water fleas”, which are infested with guinea worm larvae. These copepods are too small to be seen with the naked eye. After the parasite is ingested it grows within the body for a period of between 10-14 months, which is why it’s significant that there have been no reported cases of the worm in South Sudan over the past 15 months.  People usually become symptomatic about one year after infection. Though Guinea worm infections aren’t usually fatal, the infection can have some horrific effects. When the worm emerges from the body, giant, painful blisters erupt somewhere on the body, usually on the foot or lower leg. The parasite causes the skin of the infected person to experience an incredibly painful burning sensation, intended to make the victim seek out water to relieve the pain. When the worm inside the foot feels the water, it bursts out of the flesh and releases its larvae into the water, which will begin the process over again. The Guinea worm can be quite long, between 60-100 centimeters and take a significant amount of time (up to weeks or months) to completely be removed from the body. This can be a very painful and disabling time for the infected person. During this period people can’t work or attend school. Fevers, pain, and swelling can all occur during this time. The open wound can also become infected by bacteria, which causes its own problems, and significant infections can be fatal. The same person can even be infected by the Guinea worm multiple times because the body cannot build an immunity to the worm.
Efforts to eradicate Guinea worm have proven quite fruitful over the past few decades. During the 1980s, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm a year. Most of these cases were distributed throughout central and northern Africa. Since then, most of the nations where Guinea worm could be found have been made free of the parasite. Last year only 30 cases were reported throughout the entire globe, in both Chad and Ethiopia. This means that the complete eradication of Guinea worm is within sight. A variety of methods are used to combat the parasite: spreading awareness to avoid heading to bodies of water even if the burning sensation is excruciating; technological innovations like straws with filters that trap the eggs of the worm; improvements to water sanitation and plumbing; treatment of communal water sources killing the copepods, or “water fleas”, that carry the Guinea worm larvae.
Guinea worm very rarely infects animals other than humans, though it is possible. For this reason, programs that seek to complete eradicate the worm will also have to focus on eradicating the worm from animals like dogs and cats. If Guinea worm is successfully eradicated, it will become only the second human disease to have ever been eradicated, following the eradication of smallpox in the 1980s. Guinea worm isn’t the only disease the World Health Organization is focusing on eradicating. Programs are also targeting Polio and Malaria for eradication. Polio has
gone from around 400,000 estimated cases in 1985 to only a few hundred a year in the last few years. Malaria remains a scourge in much of Africa, parts of Indonesia and parts of South America. Yet global deaths from Malaria have already dropped from more than 800,000 in the
year 2000 to about 430,000 in 2015, being cut almost in half.  Hopefully, within a year or two, Guinea worm will no longer be a threat to people, having been completely eradicated from the globe.
Source: https://sciencetrends.com/south-sudan-stops-transmission-of-guinea-worm-total-eradication-in-sight/ Edit by Jpic-jp.org
Photo. Filtered straws are distributed to residents of areas impacted by Guinea worm. Photo: The Carter Center