Accra, July 8, GNA - Ghana has achieved 96 per cent reduction in Guinea Worm cases and is expected to hit the 100 per cent reduction mark towards completion, Dr Siedu Korkor, Guinea Worm Eradication Programme Manager said on Thursday.

"If Ghana achieves 100 per cent reduction, she would undertake a-three-year surveillance and when no case is recorded, World Health Organisation (WHO) would also undertake its own surveillance to certify Ghana as a Guinea Worm free country", said Dr Korkor in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra. He said only six new cases had been recorded so far this year, as compared to 146 cases the same period last year and expressed the hope that it would improve.

The disease which has crippled millions in Africa and Asia, is nearly being eradicated in Ghana with efforts from the Carter Centre, which has been working with health workers in Ghana over the last 20 years. People are infected after drinking water contaminated with Guinea worm larvae. The larvae grow in the body for about a year, reaching as much as a metre in length before exiting through blistering sores on the skin. The only method for treatment is extraction of the worm, centimetre by centimetre over several weeks; victims feel excruciating pain and some are left crippled.

Affected communities suffer because victims cannot undertake their farming activities, attend school or care for their families. When an emerging worm comes in contact with water, it releases thousands of eggs, and without education and treatment, the cycle of the disease continues.

When Carter Centre began its campaign in 1986, there were about 3.5 million cases of Guinea Worm in 20 countries. Now there are fewer than 5,000 cases in six countries - Sudan, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Niger - and Guinea Worm is likely to become the first disease to be eliminated without vaccines or medicines. Ghana, the first nation targeted by Carter Centre's Guinea Worm Eradication Programme in 1987, had 180,000 cases at that time, and just 501 cases in 2008.

With the efforts of local volunteers and simple methods like water filtration and health education, the number of cases continues to drop with six recorded in the first quarter of 2010. Carter Centre is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation established in 1982 by Former US President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.

Its mission is "to wage peace, fight disease and build hope".