where we work
The Carter Center helped Mauritania mobilize its resources to wipe out Guinea worm disease in just five years.
Current Status: Transmission stopped, June 2004 ()
Certification of Dracunculiasis Elimination: 2009
When Mauritania established a national Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1995, five regions were endemic: Assaba, Gorgol, Guidimaka, Brakna, and Tagant, with 122 villages reporting a national total of 1,240 cases. By the following year, only Assaba, Gorgol, and Guidimaka remained endemic.
To traverse the deserts and reach isolated and remote areas, health workers rode camels, horses, and donkeys to implement their monthly training and case reporting activities. In 1996, the government of Japan agreed to provide 200 wells in endemic areas of the country. Mauritania reported its last indigenous case in June 2004, and after 12 consecutive months with zero cases, disease transmission was considered stopped.
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