Latest Dracunculiasis Stories

OMAHA, Neb., June 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Legendary eradication expert Dr. Donald R. Hopkins will receive the prestigious Pumphandle Award today from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), honoring his outstanding contributions to applied epidemiology. "Donald Hopkins is renowned as an eradication expert, and his unwavering commitment to improving the lives of the world's most disadvantaged people using a data-driven approach is unparalleled. This...

International private and public partners announced a joint effort on Monday to combat 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2020. The new coordinated push is aimed at accelerating progress toward eliminated or controlling 10 NTDs and improving the lives of the 1.4 billion people affected by them. Governments from the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E. are teaming up with 13 pharmaceutical companies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organizations to...

World Health Assembly needs to prioritize safe water to eliminate guinea worm and cholera NEW YORK, May 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leaders at this week's World Health Assembly in Geneva could miss the last hurdle in finally ridding the world of a debilitating disease unless they take vital steps to address the global water crisis, said WaterAid today. The world is on the verge of eradicating dracunculiasis, a waterborne parasitic disease caused by guinea worm, which remains in...

Global initiatives to control specific diseases, such as polio or worm diseases, in low income countries not only do good. Sometimes they pull people and resources away from basic health care. Then the remedy may be worse than the disease. In an article in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers from the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) caution the international aid community for complacency.Basically it is a matter of balance between curative and...