ࡱ> ,.+7 r bjbjUU "7|7|r l^^^^ j npppppp$     jn n b nnv P`r^ nn0n n The Associated Press State & Local Wire September 24, 2003, Wednesday, BC cycle ϲ, health officials work to eliminate guinea worm disease BYLINE: By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer Guinea worm disease - a painful condition caused by a parasitic worm - is nearing worldwide eradication but more efforts are needed to make sure cases decline, international health officials said Wednesday. There were about 54,600 cases of the disease last year - the latest data available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guinea worm cases have been reduced to 13 countries in Africa. Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana have more than 93 percent of the world's cases. Sudan's civil war has hindered guinea worm reduction efforts. Health officials need to make sure they maintain momentum in removing the worm from affected areas, said Dr. Nevio Zagaria of the World Health Organization. Zagaria and other international health officials have been discussing disease-fighting strategies since Monday at ϲ, which has been a leader in the eradication effort. The conference concludes Thursday. "The key for success is the governments' support of the elimination effort and the support of society," Zagaria said. "This is the challenge we have for us." Guinea worm disease has plagued millions of people throughout history. After the worms are ingested through infested water, they grow to adult size - 2 to 3 feet long - within the body and then exit the skin to release thousands of worm eggs into water. "It is so painful that (patients) are not able to do anything," said Gen. Yabuku Gowon, a former Nigerian president who has been working to remove the disease from his country. Officials have said African rice farms have lost up to $20 million a year in unharvested crops because of the disease. Teachers cannot teach and afflicted children are unable to go to school, Gowon said. In 1986, there were 3.5 million cases of the disease. But efforts by international health officials - such as digging deep wells or giving out cloth filters that keep people from drinking contaminated water - have brought guinea worm close to eradication. The disease is believed to be one of two diseases - the other is polio - that could be the first disease since smallpox to be wiped from the planet. ϲ:  HYPERLINK "http://www.cartercenter.org" www.cartercenter.org '( . / 0 Y Z [ o p q r 0JaJjB*UaJph333jB*UaJph333 B*aJph3335B*PJ\aJph3335B*\aJph333(Pq r $a$$X^Xa$r  1h/ =!"#$%DyK www.cartercenter.orgyK :http://www.cartercenter.org/ i8@8 NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH <A@< Default Paragraph Font.U`. Hyperlink >*B*phr (Pq t @0@05@05@0 0r r r / Z o r X_delTZ[` |t t CNELSON%G:\Web News Releases\apguineaworm.doc@q q 6q q r @UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z ArialI& ??Arial Unicode MS"qhyy]r0 2Q'The Associated Press State & Local WireCNELSONCNELSONOh+'0 , H T `lt|(The Associated Press State & Local Wirehe CNELSONNELNEL Normal.dottCNELSON1ELMicrosoft Word 9.0s@F#@^ӈ@]՜.+,D՜.+,d  hp  ϲr  (The Associated Press State & Local Wire Title 8@ _PID_HLINKSAt\Dhttp://www.cartercenter.org/  !"$%&'()*-Root Entry F@Ec/Data  1TableWordDocument"SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8#CompObjjObjectPool@Ec@Ec  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q