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Health

WHO goes to Cunene to reinforce partnerships against Guinea worm

The World Health Organization (WHO) is going on a mission to the province of Cunene to strengthen partnerships to combat Guinea worm, an endemic disease that Angola has not yet managed to eradicate, the United Nations agency said this Thursday.

: Organização Mundial de Saúde Angola
Organização Mundial de Saúde Angola  

According to a WHO press release, the mission will take place between the 15th and 17th of this month in that province in the south of the country, where human cases were identified between 2018 and 2020, making the country endemic for this disease and one of the five in the world that has not yet managed to eradicate this disease.

Dracunculiasis is a parasitic disease caused by 'Dracunculus medinensis', a long white worm, which can measure between 60 and 100 centimeters.

The WHO emphasizes that there is still no treatment for Guinea worm, with prevention being the safest and most effective measure to prevent its transmission.

According to the organization, the Ministry of Health has implemented all the interventions it recommended, including community-based surveillance, vector control and the proactive keeping of domestic animals.

"In turn, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, namely the Carter Center (TCC), support the country's efforts to eradicate Guinea worm by providing technical assistance, coordinating eradication activities, reinforcing surveillance in free areas of the disease and monitoring and reporting on the progress achieved", highlights.

The mission includes meetings with the provincial government and health authorities in the municipality of Ondjiva, followed by field work in the municipality of Namacunde to verify the treatment of surface water with the larvicide Abate, in the village of Oluxwa ya Kalunga.

The work agenda also foresees meetings with traditional authorities and a community dialogue to reinforce effective collaboration between everyone involved.

Data released in July 2022 by the WHO indicated that the country had recorded ten cases, of which three were in humans and seven infections in animals.

Humans are infected by ingesting water contaminated by micro crustaceans, whose larvae penetrate the intestinal wall and become adult worms in approximately one year, during which the disease is asymptomatic.

The patient with this disease presents a painful inflammatory skin lesion due to the worm.

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