Guinea Worm Eradication Program (GWEP)
Established in 1986 and operating under the auspices of the Carter Center's Global 2000 Program, the Guinea Worm Eradication Program aims to rid future generations of guinea worm by the year 2005. This multilateral partnership brings together organizations like WHO, UNICEF, the CDC, the World Bank as well as national governments and the pharmaceutical industry in a program combining eradication efforts, training and research.
To accelerate the eradication of guinea worm disease, the partners will:
- maintain a community-based surveillance system with monthly reporting of cases, supervision, and integration of surveillance for other major
preventable diseases (where appropriate and feasible);
- target specific interventions (provision of safe water, health education, community mobilization, filter distribution, and treatment of selected water sources);
- maintain global and national dracunculiasis databases for monitoring of the epidemiological situation and map all endemic villages;
- sustain advocacy for eradication of the disease;
- certify dracunculiasis eradication country by country worldwide.
Johnson&Johnson has donated enough medical supplies, such as Tylenol®, forceps and gauze, to treat more than 3,000 villages in the endemic countries. Today, through the joint efforts of this initiative's many partners, the numbers of this disease have been reduced worldwide by 99 percent: from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to less than 35,000 reported cases in 2003. Today, it is the last 1 percent of the disease that is being fought.
|
