3 ms·

Is this true eradication or elimination? A reduction to zero cases is amazing and awesome, but is there ever a chance of the disease being truly eliminated?

• lettergram 5y ago
  Seems humans are the primary hosts, so yes it’s possible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis
  • jessriedel 5y ago
    > Because dogs may also become infected,[4] the eradication program is monitoring and treating dogs as well.
    • inglor_cz 5y ago
      Same with baboons. This wasn't expected when the intent to eradicate was declared and the existence of animal reservoirs complicates things.
• morelisp 5y ago
  True eradication was the original goal, but since 2016 there's a zoonotic reservoir in dogs which complicates that. If not for that it would've been eradicated a few years ago and it's currently unknown if that can be brought under control.
  • selimthegrim 5y ago
    Discovered in 2016? Was it preexisting?
    • morelisp 5y ago
      My understanding (not an expert - just saw the articles in 2016-2017) is that it might have been pre-existing but no one was looking because human-human transmission was overwhelmingly dominant. But I had he date wrong - apparently it was first observed in 2012, but only became a significant vector in 2016 (presumably as humans stopped being such accessible hosts).