The aim is to eliminate Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) by the year 2000.
This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.
Guinea worm disease, which is acquired by drinking infected water and brings months of debilitating pain to victims, has been reduced by about 80 percent in the last five years. Surveys in 1989 found just under 1 million confirmed cases in 16 African nations and in parts of India and Pakistan. The latest 1993 surveys have found just over 200,000. Every country with a guinea worm problem has now undertaken village-by-village surveys. In total, 22,000 villages have been covered, and two thirds of those have subsequently taken steps to break the cycle of infection. Some of the most successful countries in reducing Guinea worm disease incidence between 1988 and 1993 include: Nigeria (from 653,000 down to 76,000 cases); Ghana (from 180,000 down to 18,000 cases); India (from 31,000 down to 800 cases); Pakistan (from 1,100 down to 2 cases).