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Guinea Worm May Soon Be Eliminated
JANUARY 11, 2009Eazibee, HappyNews ColumnistWoah - I just realized how long it was since I last posted. Sorry folks. I've been consumed by work over the past two weeks.
Fortunately, RTBH reader Stacey reminded me of a story I'd seen but was too tired to post! (Thanks, Stacey!) It's from the BBC, and it documents the progress made in preventing guinea worm infection
The worm is present in water in many poor countries - when people drink water containing guinea worm larvae, the little critters stay in their bodies and grow. They can reach a meter in length and eventually emerge from the skin - as you can imagine, it's extremely painful and disabling.
There's no vaccine or treatment for the disease - you avoid it by filtering water and taking other precautions. Thankfully, through such measures, the disease has already been eliminated in many countries, and worldwide infection rates have dropped by 99% since 1986. 80% of all remaining cases are in Sudan.
Former US president, Jimmy Carter, is spearheading the final push towards worldwide elimination - with additional support from the Gates Foundation and the UK government - and he thinks it could all be over within 2 years! That really would be quite an achievement...
Read the story on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7768871.stm
http://reasonstobehopeful.blogspot.com/2008/12/guinea-worm-may-soon-be-eliminated.html
Eazibee hails from the UK but now lives in New York, where she works as a consultant - focused on health and environmental issues in developing countries - alongside raising a young family. She devotes any free time she has left to screenwriting and blogging. Reasons to be Hopeful is her principal blog, which she started in October 2007 in an effort to counter the negativity dominating the mainstream newswires. She aims to capture good news from across the world, reflecting the positive experiences of many different communities. Please feel free to send any good stories you come across to eazibee(at)gmail.com.
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