Nigeria has taken a giant leap towards the total eradication of Guinea worm in the country. This is the attainment of 100 per cent absence of any report of Guinea worm in Nigeria.
The fact of this achievement features highly and most prominently on the requirements towards the total eradication of the disease.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, who made this known to newsmen during a press briefing in Abuja to present status of GWD eradication in Nigeria and the country’s efforts towards meeting all statutory requirements for consideration of certification by WHO, called on Nigerians, particularly the press to report any case detection promptly, to the appropriate authorities.
The importance of this milestone is set against the backdrop of the fact that, at the inception of the Nigeria Guinea worm Eradication Programme (NIGEP) in 1988, Nigeria was the most endemic country globally of which, 653,620 cases were reported in 5,879 villages nationwide.
As a result of the concerted efforts towards the implementation of our eradication strategy, the number of reported cases has reduced so significantly that since the 10th November, 2008, no new case has been reported in Nigeria.
“The attainment of this mark serves a further encouragement for us to work towards ensuring that Nigeria is formally listed as one of the countries that are free of the Guineaworm disease. We need to ensure that Nigeria meets all the statutory requirements to qualify for certification by the World Health Organization. In addition to the achievement of a zero GWD case status and maintaining the status quo for three consecutive years, the following criteria must be met before we qualify for consideration for certification.
“Ahead of meeting the requirements above, we need to ensure that we do not lose the current status, as a result of which we are intensifying our surveillance activities nationwide notably among which is the institution of a cash award of N10,000 for the prompt reporting of any case of GWD in Nigeria,” the minister said.

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