NTD Intelligence

Dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease)

Neglected tropical disease intelligence: burden, staged therapeutics with published-evidence filter, and documented post-infectious syndrome with literature persistence rates.

Deaths / year
0
GBD (indicative unless refreshed)
DALYs / year
50
GBD
Pathogen
Helminth
Post-infectious
No post-acute phase
Persistent symptoms

Post-infectious syndrome & persistent symptoms

Whether a post-acute infection syndrome is documented and the literature proportion with persistent symptoms.

Post-acute status
Transient joint involvement; no defined post-acute syndrome (near eradication)
Classification
No post-acute phase
Onset
-
Persistent-symptom %
not quantified as a single figure (see notes)
Source: WHO GWEP

Therapeutic agents by stage

Vector control, prevention, acute treatment, and post-infectious care. Only agents with published evidence are shown by default.

Vector & transmission control

AgentTypeStatusMechanism / roleSource
Guinea worm case containment & water filtrationVector controlApprovedPrevent Cyclops ingestion; pipe filtersWHO GWEP

Prevention

AgentTypeStatusMechanism / roleSource
Safe water supply educationPreventionApprovedNear-eradication via behavioral preventionWHO EML / standard of care

Acute phase

AgentTypeStatusMechanism / roleSource
Manual worm extraction & wound carePreliminarySupportiveStandard of careNo chemotherapeutic agent; gradual removalWHO GWEP

Associated drug targets (Open Targets): ITGB2, CARD14, IL1RN, CTSL, CTSV, TRPV3

Burden: IHME GBD (indicative seed unless refreshed) · Therapeutics: curated WHO EML / SOC + Open Targets pipeline · Post-infectious data: curated peer-reviewed literature · Ontology: MONDO_0016472 · Updated 2026-07-10. Associations, not a diagnostic test.