neglected tropical diseases
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The Horrific Guinea Worm Is on the Run — Just 14 Cases Reported Worldwide Last Year
A debilitating parasitic worm could soon be eradicated as one of humanity’s longtime foes. On Wednesday, the Carter Centre announced that only 14 cases of guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2021 — the lowest toll yet and a sharp decline from the year before. There are still ongoing challenges impeding eradication, though, including…
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A Mystery Worm Infection in Vietnam Shows a New Species Can Live in Humans
The mystery over a worm infestation found in a Vietnamese man last year has been solved, though not without adding another creepy wrinkle to the tale. The worms inside the man weren’t the Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis), a now-rare parasite on the brink of eradication, as originally thought. Instead, they were a related and unknown…
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A ‘Breakthrough’ Trial Used Bacteria-Infected Mosquitoes to Stamp Out Dengue
An unconventional ploy to combat dengue in Indonesia seems to have gone incredibly well.
