A painful pest wiped out
Assana Mohammed, 10, grimaces as a health worker extracts a guinea worm from her foot at a containment center in Savelugu, Ghana (March 9, 2007) Credit: AP
That's the number of Guinea worm cases in Ghana in the past 14 months, down from 180,000 in 1989. After more than two decades of applying pesticides and distributing water filters, the Guinea worm, a nasty parasite found in standing water that can painfully burrow into the leg tissues of its host and grow up to three feet long, may be finally eradicated in the West African country. This rare piece of good news should be an encouraging lesson for other humanitarian efforts in developing nations. Persistence and commitment can pay off.
