For only the second time in the history of humanity, humans are very, very close to wiping a disease off the face of the planet. The first victim was smallpox, back in 1977, and this time, we have our sights set on Guinea worm disease, which is caused by the Guinea worm parasite, Dracunculiasis, and just happens to be one of the most horrible conditions I've read about in a long time.The Guinea worm infects people who drink water contaminated with its larvae, and it now only exists in four countries in Africa. But that wasn't always the case. In 1986, there were 3.5 million cases of infection reported across Africa and Asia.
Former US President Jimmy Carter first saw the disease in Africa in the '80s, when he visited a village in Guinea where more than two-thirds of the locals were infected
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