HN Reader

Any individual presenting with the disease who meets all the criteria for containment is now rewarded with 500 South Sudanese pounds (SSP). The informer is given 100 SSP.

2 days agoby lysace

The free market could never accomplish something like this.

2 days agoby palmotea

Honest question here: how is a worm (parasite) considered a "disease"? I Googled this question two different ways and got two different responses.

2 days agoby I_dream_of_Geni

Sounds like there is still some way to go:

> To fully eradicate the disease, cases in animals (infected by the same species of worm) must also be wiped out. In 2025, animal cases were detected in Chad (147 cases), Mali (17), Cameroon (445), Angola (70), Ethiopia (1), and South Sudan (3).

2 days agoby cubefox

Eradication of the Guinea worm will be one of the huge milestones in the history of humankind. Just reading about them is nightmarish. In 1986 estimated 3,500,000 people had an infestation. Now we're well below 100. However eradication also needs animal cases to go to zero which are still in the hundreds.

Anyway, really great news about humanity beating one of its many terrible enemies just like the Malaria vaccine.

2 days agoby basilikum

>The eradication program works by offering cash rewards for reporting cases in areas where the worm is present.

I wonder how they prevented a cobra effect[0] here? Clearly they did avoid it since there were so few human cases. Or maybe some of the animal cases reflect this?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Effect

1 day agoby rozab

The decrease from 3.5 million cases to only 15 is impressive but I don't see how we can eradicate zoonoses

2 days agoby poulpy123

Kudos, but it seems that "eradicated" is a bit too strong of a word, since it appears that the worm will still be capable of infecting new patients.

2 days agoby ufocia

Take THAT, God! ;-)

2 days agoby 31337Logic

Quick! Someone please call the HHS Secretary and have funding for this program cut to the bone!

1 day agoby MrGuts

RFK Jr: “Not so fast”

2 days agoby giantfrog

> only 10 cases in 2025

10 _known_ cases

2 days agoby hulitu

Please share this with someone who doesn't know the story yet. Ingenuity alone can't save our species. We also need the will to do good. We are living through a moment of deep cynicism about our ability to solve existential problems. Let this be a reminder of what we are capable of.

2 days agoby atdt