Angola has marked five consecutive years without a single human case of Guinea worm disease, health officials said, as the country moves closer to meeting the global target of eradicating the disease by 2030.
Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease, is a parasitic infection spread through contaminated drinking water. About a year after infection, a painful blister forms as a worm emerges from the skin.
Though rarely fatal, the disease can disable people for weeks or months and mainly affects rural communities that rely on stagnant surface water.
The milestone follows strengthened epidemiological surveillance and rapid response to animal infections.
Still, Angola remains classified as endemic because infections persist in animals, a key obstacle to certification.
Between 2018 and 2024, authorities confirmed 137 animal infections, including 134 in dogs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2025, 10 human cases were reported globally, the lowest figure on record, while 683 animal infections were registered across six countries.
Angola accounted for about 10% of those animal infections, WHO said.
On Feb. 24-25, Angola’s Ministry of Health held its first annual review of the national eradication program in Ondjiva, with support from WHO and The Carter Center.
Officials said the next phase will focus on containing animal infections, the final barrier to certification.
Global progress, remaining hurdles
In the mid-1980s, an estimated 3.5 million cases were reported in 20 countries, 17 in Africa and three in Asia.
Cases fell to fewer than 10,000 in 2007, then to 126 in 2014. Since 2015, annual human infections have remained in double digits, declining to 13 provisional cases in 2024. All were reported in Chad and South Sudan, according to WHO.
Five countries, Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and South Sudan, remain endemic.
Sudan is in the precertification stage. Cameroon, certified free of the disease, has reported cross-border transmission along its northern border with Chad.
Continued infections in animals, mainly dogs and cats, complicate eradication efforts.
