Dracunculiasis, also referred to as Guinea worm disease (GWD), is an ancient scourge on the brink of eradication. It is contracted when humans drink water from sources infested by microcrustacean copepods harboring Guinea worm (GW) larvae. The copepods dissolve in the stomach and release the GW larvae which make their way to the gut of the final host. Soon after, male and female GWs mate and approximately one year after entering the human body, a gravid female GW protrudes through the final host’s skin to release her larvae, causing extreme pain and debilitation. The most common treatment involves the slow extraction of the GW over time, but the cycle can be repeated without education/prevention and control interventions. In 1981, a global campaign to eradicate GWD was initiated simultaneously with the United Nations’ International Drinking Water Supply and sanitation Decade (1981-1990). This thesis contributes to the existing body of literature on GWD by providing a review of the disease’s history, research, and global programmatic findings from 1981 to 2013. It reconstructs the Global Dracunculiasis Eradication Campaign (GDEC) using the data made publicly available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and their affiliates chiefly through three publications: Guinea Worm Wrap-Up, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and Weekly Epidemiological Record. Through this reconstruction of GDEC, hypotheses are generated about why GWD continues to persist in four sub-Sahara African countries: Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan.
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